Report: Louisville shooter’s parents say son shouldn’t have been able to buy gun
The parents of the mass shooter who killed five people and injured eight others at Old National Bank in downtown Louisville told NBC’s Today Show their son attended a psychiatrist appointment four days before the shooting.
Todd and Lisa Sturgeon, parents of Connor Sturgeon, spoke with NBC’s Savannah Guthrie about their son’s mental health concerns leading up to the shooting. They said he struggled with mental health and he even called his mom six days before the shooting to report a panic attack.
Two days after the panic attack, the shooter visited with a psychiatrist, his parents told Guthrie. Todd and Lisa Sturgeon were present during the appointment.
“He was willing to talk to me,” Lisa Sturgeon told Guthrie. “He had told us before he would never do such a thing like that to us. We thought he was coming out of a crisis.”
The gunman legally purchased the AR-15 used in the shooting the day he reportedly had the panic attack, LMPD previously confirmed. Todd Sturgeon said it took approximately 40 minutes for his son to purchase the weapon and ammunition.
“Because of his mental condition, he should not have been able to purchase the gun,” Lisa Sturgeon added. “If there had been a delay or something of that nature, that would have been helpful.”
The shooting happened the morning of April 10. Thomas Elliott, Joshua Barrick, Deana Eckert, Juliana Farmer and James Tutt, all employees of Old National Bank, were killed.
Seven of the eight injured in the shooting have been released from the hospital. Officer Nickolas Wilt, who was shot in the head while responding to the shooting, remained on a ventilator and was in critical but stable condition as of Friday.
Wilt was recently transferred to UofL Health Jewish Hospital to treat pneunomia. The Louisville Metro Police Foundation said doctors had trouble balancing Wilt’s body temperature and managing cranium pressure, but he was stabilizing.
Scientists plan to study the gunman’s brain for chronic traumatic encephalopathy, according to CNN. Todd Sturgeon previously told CNN it will be a while before results come back.
CTE is a rare disorder that is likely caused by repeated head traumas, according to the Mayo Clinic. There are no specific symptoms related to CTE, but it has been found in the brains of people who played contact sports or had explosive to explosive blasts.
The shooter’s family believes he suffered three significant concussions while playing prep sports as an eighth and ninth grader, according to CNN. The Courier-Journal reported Sturgeon wore a soft leather helmet playing basketball at Floyd Central High School in southern Indiana near Louisville.
WLKY has video highlights of Sturgeon’s basketball games, where he can be seen wearing the helmet.
