911 calls from Louisville bank shooting have been released

The Louisville Metro Police clarified Wednesday that there "was no discussion about [the shooter] being terminated, and of course he wasn't fired," from his bank job prior to Monday's fatal workplace shooting.

“He was an active employee there at Old National Bank, but there was no discussion about this individual being terminated,” Louisville Metropolitan Police Interim Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel told CNN.

The mother of the shooter who killed five people at Old National Bank in Louisville, Kentucky, on Monday called 911 after hearing secondhand that her son had a gun and was heading toward the bank.

The mother made the call at 8:41 a.m. local time, three minutes after the first 911 call came in about the shooting.

The mom said she was receiving details secondhand from the shooter’s roommate, who called her. 

"I know he doesn’t own any guns," she told the operator. 

She told the operator multiple times that her son is not violent.

“He’s never hurt anyone; he’s a really good kid. Please don’t punish him,” she said to the operator. 

“He’s nonviolent; he’s never done anything,” she said later in the call.

The mother asked the operator what she should do and if she should go to the bank. The operator told the mother that she has already received multiple calls to Old National Bank.

The mother thanked the phone operator and said goodbye.

The 911 calls from the Old National Bank mass shooting have been released by the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD). 

LMPD has released six clips of calls to 911 from the shooting and one clip of LMPD radio traffic. The clips range from 50 seconds to roughly 32 minutes long. 

CNN is looking through the calls and will provide the latest updates.

Police deploy at the scene of a mass shooting outside an Old National Bank branch in downtown Louisville, Kentucky on April 10. (Jeffrey Dean/Reuters)

Louisville Metro Police Department Lt. Col. Aaron Crowell provided a few more specifics about the timeline of the fatal shooting at a bank Monday that left five dead.

During a briefing on Tuesday, Crowell said that the shooter was "neutralized" approximately three minutes after police responded.

Crowell reiterated that the gun purchased by the shooter in the fatal bank shooting was an AR-15-style rifle. 

Louisville Metro Interim Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel said it was a "targeted" incident, as the shooter — who was an employee of the bank — knew the victims.

Police said they don’t know whether armed guards were present in the building.

Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg added that the shooting took place on the first floor of the bank building, and there were other people in the building at the time who were later cleared from the scene by police.

How it unfolded: The shooting began around 8:30 a.m. ET, police said, about 30 minutes before the bank opens to the public. Bank staff were holding their morning meeting in a conference room when the shooter opened fire, bank manager Rebecca Buchheit-Sims said.

One bank employee frantically called her husband as she sheltered inside a locked vault, the husband, Caleb Goodlett told CNN affiiliate WLKY. By the time he called 911, police were already aware of the shooting, he said.

The gunman was killed in a shootout with officers, police said.

CNN's Michelle Krupa contributed to this report.

Officials are expected to release audio of 911 calls Wednesday about the shooting, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday evening. It was among more than 145 shootings reported in the US this year with at least four victims, excluding a gunman.

Police have already released dramatic police body camera footage of Monday’s shooting at Old National Bank, in which authorities say the bank employee opened fire on his colleagues and then engaged in a shootout with police before he was shot dead.

The attacker, livestreaming the gruesome assault, fatally shot five of his coworkers in Kentucky’s most populous city around 8:30 a.m., about 30 minutes before the bank was to open, authorities said. Several others were hospitalized, including a rookie police officer who was shot in the head and was in critical condition Tuesday.

“Our city is heartbroken,” Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday evening. “These five victims should not be dead – just like everyone else who was killed by gun violence in our city, in our country, should not be dead.”

Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg speaks at a press conference on April 11 at Metro Hall in Louisville, Kentucky. (Michael Swensen/Getty Images)

Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said that at least 40 people have been killed by guns this year in his city, giving an impassioned plea for state and federal government to take action on gun violence or to cede that power to the city.

Greenberg said that the state law should be changed to address Louisville's response to gun violence.

"Let us, the people of Louisville, make our own choices about how we reduce gun violence in our city," he said.

Rep. Morgan McGarvey speaks at a press conference on April 11 at Metro Hall in Louisville, Kentucky. (Michael Swensen/Getty Images)

Rep. Morgan McGarvey, a Democrat from Kentucky, called for congressional Republicans to pass gun reform policies, saying that the issue is not political.

"We need policies in place that will keep this from happening again so that thoughts and prayers do not have to be offered to get another community ripped apart by the savage violence coming from guns," McGarvey said in a Tuesday briefing.

"I had somebody tell me the other day, 'don't make this political.' Fine. Don't make this political. People's lives aren't political. Public safety isn't political. Put those policies in place that put people first. People over guns, kids over guns, public safety over guns. Because that is what we need to address this problem," McGarvey added.

McGarvey discussed crisis aversion legislation that he has introduced to temporarily remove firearms from those who are going through a crisis. He called on his colleagues to support those efforts in a bipartisan way, including pushing for universal background checks.

Officer Nickolas Wilt (LMPD)

A 26-year-old rookie Louisville police officer – who graduated from the police academy just 11 days ago – was hospitalized after being shot in the head while responding to a mass shooting Monday at a downtown bank that left five people dead and others injured, police said.

Louisville Metro Police Department Officer Nickolas Wilt underwent brain surgery after being struck during a shootout in the bank that left the gunman dead, Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel, the interim chief of the police department, said Monday afternoon during a news conference.

The officer was still in critical condition Tuesday afternoon.

Wilt was new to the police department, having graduated from the police academy on March 31, according to the fire chief.

Read more about Officer Wilt here.

Flowers sit on the steps of the Old National Bank in Louisville on April 11. (Timothy D. Easley/AP)

Five people were killed after a workplace shooting at a bank in Louisville, Kentucky, on Monday morning. The city is set to honor the victims in a vigil Wednesday at 5 p.m. ET.

Here’s what we know so far about the lives lost:

Joshua Barrick, 40, and his family were members of the Holy Trinity Parish Louisville, the church wrote on Facebook.

"Our hearts are heavy, they are broken, and we are searching for answers," they wrote. "Please keep the entire Barrick family in your prayers, including his wife, Jessica, and their two sweet children, who are students in our school."

Deana Eckert, 57, was one of the hospitalized victims who later died Monday, police announced. It’s unclear if she was among the three people in critical condition earlier in the day.

Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg described Eckert as a "very kind and a very thoughtful person."

Tommy Elliott, Old National Bank senior vice president, is remembered by local and state leaders as a close mentor and beloved community leader.

Elliott, 63, was also close friends with Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Greenberg, who said he spent Monday morning at the hospital with Elliott’s wife.

Tommy Elliott (Courtesy Baptist Health Louisville)

"It is painful, painful for all of the families I know," Greenberg said. "It just hits home in a unique way when you know one of the victims so well."

Beshear remembered Elliott as an "incredible friend" and also called the others who were killed "amazing people" who will be missed and mourned by their communities.

Juliana Farmer, 45, was also an employee of the bank who had just started a new chapter in her life by moving to Louisville from Henderson, her aunt Vicki Brooks-Scott told CNN affiliate WFIE. It had only been her third week on the job, according to Brooks-Scott. She last talked to her niece on Easter.

Juliana Farmer (From Facebook)

Farmer leaves behind three children, four grandchildren, and a fifth due in September, according to her aunt.

James "Jim" Tutt, 64, was a "huge fan and supporter" of the downtown Louisville area and actively helped to promote it, Rebecca Fleischaker, the executive director of the Downtown Development Corporation, told CNN.

Tutt worked as the CRE market executive at Old National Bank in downtown Louisville since 2015, according to his LinkedIn.

James "Jim" Tutt (From Jim Tutt/Linkedin)

He was on the board of the Downtown Development Corporation, a nonprofit organization, since 2018 and recently served as its treasurer.

CNN’s Caroll Alvarado, Celina Tebor, Elizabeth Wolfe, Laura Ly, John Miller and Holly Yan contributed to this report.

A 25-year-old man in Kentucky legally purchased an AR-15-style rifle at a local gun dealership. Six days later he used that weapon to kill five of his colleagues at a downtown bank, Louisville Metro Police said Tuesday.

Kentucky has some of the least restrictive state gun laws in the nation. Gun enthusiasts have described it as “one of the most gun-friendly states east of the Mississippi.” By contrast, gun violence prevention groups like Everytown have billed the state’s laws as “among the worst in the country.”

Kentucky is home to some of the highest firearm death rates in the country, the latest statistics from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show. Experts attribute gun violence across the state to relaxed laws in obtaining firearms and the absence of any training requirements to handle a legally purchased gun.

“Red flag” laws, found in more than a dozen states across the US, allow courts to temporarily revoke firearm ownership by anyone believed to be a danger to themselves or others. They too are nonexistent in Kentucky, Mascia pointed out.

If the Louisville mass shooter’s behavior “had aroused suspicion among family members, it would have possibly resulted in him being disarmed or at least a visit from law enforcement, which could have derailed his plans,” she said.

Prior to 2019 – when Kentucky allowed firearms to be carried without a concealed carry permit – individuals had to prove they knew how to fire a gun. “They actually had to pass a shooting test. So, you went to a shooting range and you had to make 11 out of 20 shots on a target in front of an instructor,” Mascia said. The state eliminated the requirement when permitless carry was adopted, making anyone eligible over the age of 21 able to lawfully possess a firearm to conceal their deadly weapon in public without officially demonstrating they know how to use it.

According to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, there’s no waiting period between the purchase of a firearm and its physical transfer to the buyer in Kentucky, whereas some states require a waiting period ranging anywhere from 72 hours to 14 days before the weapon is handed over.

Read more here.