A man kills four people in a bank in the United States

Four people died and at least nine were injured this Monday when a man opened fire in a bank in Louisville, the main city of Kentucky, in the central west of the United States, and broadcast images of the attack live on the Internet before being killed.

Source: AFP

This is Connor Sturgeon. a 23-year-old bank employee, according to the police.

“Broadcast live” the attack, Louisville Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel said at a news conference.

In a statement to AFP, a spokeswoman for Meta (Facebook and Instagram parent company) stated thate the company is “in contact with law enforcement” and claimed to have “quickly removed the live broadcast of this tragic event this morning.”

The authorities They did not specify the attacker’s motive, but, according to CNN, they had notified him that he would be fired and left a letter for his relatives. in which he announced that he was going to open fire on the bank’s premises.

It may interest: Cuban Parliament convenes a session to elect the President of the Republic

Police received calls about shots being fired at the Old National Bank premises in the city center at around 8:30 am (1230 GMT) and arrived at the scene “in less than three minutes”, said Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel.

Some survivors took refuge in the vault, according to a CNN reporter.

“The suspect fired at the police, we opened fire in response and neutralized this danger,” added Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel.

– “Devil act” –

The officers “went into the building knowing they were risking their lives to save others,” Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg told a news conference.

Two officers were wounded in the shooting. One of them was hit in the head and his condition is stable but critical after undergoing surgery, Gwinn-Villaroel said.

Nine people were hospitalized, three of whom are in critical condition, it added.

The four fatalities are three men and a woman between the ages of 40 and 64.

“It was a devilish act,” said Mayor Greenberg, who said he lost a “very good friend” in the killing.

The victim, Tommy Elliott, was also one of the “closest friends” of Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, who paid tribute to him and denounced gun violence.

these acts “break the ties that bind us”, said the Democratic governor.

Also read: The contract that buried the dream of 3 young women: they were brutally murdered

President Joe Biden, who is lobbying congressmen in Washington to take action against gun violence, expressed his frustration over these “senseless” deaths.

“Too many Americans are paying the price for inaction with their lives,” Biden wrote on Twitter. And she added: “When will Republicans in Congress act to protect our communities?”

The attacker was carrying an AR-15 type rifle, according to CNN, citing a federal police source.

– Proliferation –

The United States pays a heavy price for the dissemination of firearms in their territory and the ease with which Americans have access to them.

On March 27, a person opened fire at a private elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee (south). He killed three 9-year-old boys and three employees before being shot dead by police.

The country has more individual weapons than inhabitants: one in three adults owns at least one gun, and nearly one in two lives in a home with a gun.

As a consequence of this proliferation, the country registers a very high rate of death by firearm, incomparable with that of other developed States.

Some 49,000 people died of gunshot wounds in 2021, up from 45,000 in 2020, which was already a record year, according to the Gun Violence Archive database. This represents more than 130 deaths per day, more than half of which are suicides.