Bank employee livestreamed Louisville mass shooting that killed five people

A 23-year-old bank employee who opened fire in his workplace in Louisville and killed five people livestreamed his attack, authorities have said.

Officers arrived at the Old National Bank at around 8.30am and exchanged gunfire with the shooter, who has since been identified as Connor Sturgeon.

"The suspect shot at officers. We then returned fire and stopped that threat," Louisville Metro Police Department chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel told a news conference.

Remarking on how the now deceased shooter broadcast his attack online, she said: "That's tragic to know that that incident was out there and captured."

"We're hopeful that we can have that incident removed, that footage removed."

A survivor told how the shooter opened fire with a long rifle in the back of the building's first floor.

"Whoever was next to me got shot - blood is on me from it," he told WHAS-TV, explaining how he fled to a break room and shut the door.

Nine people, including two police officers, were treated for injuries from the shooting, University of Louisville Hospital spokeswoman Heather Fountaine said in an email.

One of the officers, a 26-year-old who had graduated from the police academy on March 31, was in a critical condition after being shot in the head and having surgery, the police chief said. At least three patients had been discharged.

In a tweet, Kentucky governor Andy Beshear said he was heading to the scene, adding: "Please pray for all of the families impacted and for the city of Louisville."

At a news conference, he became emotional as he said he had two very close friends who "didn't make it today", while another is at hospital.

He said his 2015 attorney general campaign was based in the same building, adding: "I know virtually everyone in it, that's my bank."

The governor said: "These are irreplaceable, amazing individuals that a terrible act of violence tore from all of us."

It was the second time that Mr Beshear was personally touched by a mass tragedy since becoming governor.

The city's mayor, Craig Greenberg, also arrived in the area shortly after the shooting.

"We will come together as a community to work to prevent these horrific acts of gun violence from continuing here and around the state," he said at the news conference.

The shooting, the 15th mass killing in the US this year, comes just two weeks after a former student killed three children and three adults at a Christian elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee.

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