LMPD officer injured in Louisville bank shooting discharged after months-long hospital stay
.jpg "Louisville police officer Nickolas Wilt, who was shot while responding to a mass shooting at a downtown bank, leaves the hospital on July 28, 2023. Wilt was in the care of UofL Health for more than three months after the shooting.")
After spending nearly four months hospitalized after being shot in the head, rookie Louisville police officer Nickolas Wilt was released from a rehabilitation center Friday.
Wilt, 26, was shot by Connor Sturgeon outside Old National Bank in April. Sturgeon, who worked at the bank, had rampaged through the downtown Louisville building minutes before, shooting co-workers. He killed five people and injured several others before waiting to ambush police when they responded to the scene, police said previously.
On Friday, Wilt left the Frazier Rehabilitation Institute in a wheelchair pushed by his twin brother, Zach Wilt, and trailed by his mother, Jen. He flashed a thumbs up to dozens of employees gathered in the lobby to celebrate his send-off.
In a news conference beforehand, Zach Wilt said his brother was able to go home Friday because of the care he has received at UofL Health.
“He gets to go home to his own bed, to his own TV, and he’s been asking for a steak dinner for a couple weeks now,” his brother said. “You bet we’re going to give him a steak dinner tonight.”
Nick Wilt graduated from the police academy just 10 days before he was shot on April 10. He remained in critical condition for nearly a month on a ventilator before developing pneumonia in both lungs, for which doctors transferred him from UofL Health’s flagship hospital to Jewish Hospital.
He was taken off a ventilator and moved back to UofL Health May 3, but remained in the intensive care unit, officials said. Wilt’s condition continued progressing, and he was moved to the Frazier Rehabilitation Institute about a week later. By late May, Wilt had begun walking with assistance and talking.
After regaining consciousness, Wilt had to re-learn how to do do basic activities, like swallow, stand and talk, said Dr. Darryl Kaelin, medical director of the institute.
Though he left Frazier on Friday, he will return next week to begin an intensive outpatient five-day-a-week physical and occupational therapy regimen, Kaelin said. The majority of his recovery will happen over the next two years, he said.
Considering how “severe” his injury was, Kaelin said Friday, “he is making a remarkable recovery for the extent of the injury he had.”
Wilt’s long-term prognosis is good, he added.
“Over the weeks and months to come, he’s going to become more and more independent,” Kaelin said. “I would put no restrictions on his ability.”
Louisville Metro Police Department Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel highlighted the resilience of Wilt and his family and asked for police officers across the country to “have pride that our brother in blue is coming home.”
Jim Ryan, CEO of Old National Bank, tearfully asked people to honor Wilt’s sacrifice and the lives lost that day by “loving one another more fully, caring for one another more completely, and supporting one another to the very best of our ability.”
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg praised Wilt for his “grit, determination and fight,” and reassured him, “the whole city is behind you.”
Greenberg began his address by naming each of the five victims killed that day, and asked the city to never forget their names, or the names and lives of anyone else killed by gun violence. He then reiterated his call for greater gun control in a county replete with gun violence.
“To those who have survived gun violence, let’s take action together,” he said. “Let’s fight to protect officers like Wilt, let’s fight to protect every child, sun and daughter from the fear of gun violence. Let’s fight together to make gun violence a plague of the past.”
This story was originally published July 28, 2023 at 12:57 PM.
