Louisville’s mayor has demanded change in the way confiscated guns are handled as it emerged that the weapon used in a bank shooting could be auctioned to the public.
The BBC reports that under current state law in Kentucky, guns confiscated by police — including from homicides — are made available for purchase at auction.
Officials confirmed the semi-automatic rifle could be sold off to the public.
Bank employee Connor Sturgeon, 25, targeted people he knew at his workplace on Monday morning (local time), with the death toll rising to five.
It has since emerged the gun was legally purchased a week earlier.
Louisville Metro Police Department Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel said Sturgeon bought the AR-15 rifle on April 4 at a local dealership.
Armed with the rifle, Sturgeon livestreamed the attack before he was killed by police, authorities said.
Another eight people were wounded.
“We do know this was targeted. He knew those individuals, of course, because he worked there,” Ms Gwinn-Villaroel said but did not give an indication of a motive behind the shooting.
Officers’ body camera video will be released on Tuesday afternoon (local time), the chief said.
Ms Gwinn-Villaroel praised her officers’ response as they “unflinchingly” engaged the shooter at Old National Bank and stopped him from killing more people.
“The act of heroism can’t be overstated on yesterday. They did what they were called to do. They answered that call to protect and serve,” she told WDRB-TV.
Officer Nickolas Wilt, who had graduated from training just 10 days earlier, was still in critical but stable condition on Tuesday after being shot in the head, according to University of Louisville Hospital Chief Medical Officer Jason Smith.
Two of the four wounded still in the hospital had injuries that were not life-threatening, he said.
Mayor Craig Green said the way confiscated guns are handled had to change.
He also called for unity as the community processed its grief.
“We’re all feeling shaken by this, and scared and angry and a lot of other things too,” he said.
“It’s important that we come together as a community to process this tragedy in particular but not just this tragedy because the reality is that we have already lost 40 people to gun violence in Louisville this year.”
An interfaith vigil will be held on Wednesday evening and he invited people to come to grieve and pray.
“This vigil will be to acknowledge the wounds, physical and emotional, that gun violence leaves behind,” he said.
The shooting, the 15th mass killing in the United States this year, comes just two weeks after a former student killed three children and three adults at a Christian elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee, about 260km to the south.
The shooting, the 15th mass killing in the United States this year, comes just two weeks after a former student killed three children and three adults at a Christian elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee, about 260km to the south.
That state’s governor and his wife also had friends killed in that shooting.
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said he lost one of his closest friends in the shooting.
