The man suspected of killing four and injuring nine at the Old National Bank in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, was a high school star who suffered so many concussions that he wore a helmet at a basketball game. was.
Police identified the shooter as Connor Sturgeon, 23, a bank employee.
During his freshman year at Floyd Central High School in Floyd Knobbs, Indiana, Sturgeon was an all-rounder who played basketball, football, and running track.
His father was the team’s head coach, so a former classmate called The Daily Beast Sturgeon called “Mr. Floyd Central.”
However, a classmate who wished to remain anonymous said that Sturgeon had suffered multiple concussions while playing football, which is why he strangely wore a helmet while playing basketball.
“We played soccer together in eighth grade, and he had multiple concussions that kept him out for most of the year,” he said. “Then he had a few more in high school.”
A photo of Sturgeon, a junior on the Floyd Central High School basketball team, showed him wearing a helmet in a game where he scored nearly half of his team’s points.
Classmates said they couldn’t help but think about Sturgeon’s high school injuries, tying them to other incidents in which athletes with concussions harmed themselves and others.
In recent years, doctors have found many links between football players and chronic traumatic encephalopathy. [CTE]a degenerative brain disease caused by repeated blows to the head.
People diagnosed with CTE typically have impaired thinking and memory, and are prone to aggression, mood swings, depression, and paranoia. According to the Concussion Legacy Foundation.
New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, who was convicted of murder in 2015, was found to have chronic CTE after his suicide in prison in 2017.
During his senior year, Sturgeon won the 2016 News and Tribune Sports Performance of the Year Award for Boys Track Athlete of the Year.
After high school, Sturgeon studied Finance at the University of Alabama, graduating with a Master of Science in Finance in 2020.
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While in college, Sturgeon worked as a summer intern at Old National Bank for three consecutive years, eventually working as a commercial development specialist in 2021 and full-time associate and portfolio company last year, according to his LinkedIn account. Participated as a banker.
His Instagram account, where he filmed the shooting, has been deleted, but screengrabs shared by a local reporter show Sturgeon looking unsettled in the hours leading up to the shooting.
His last purported post — one The Post could not immediately confirm — included a meme photo with a caption. You could burn this whole place down.
His last post is said to have read: Let’s see if they hear this. ”
Police are still working to determine a motive for the fatal shooting that identified four victims as high-ranking members of the Louisville Bank branch.
Sturgeon knew he was about to be fired from the bank. According to CNNhe also said he left a note to his parents and friends explaining that he intended to go to the bank and shoot.
Among the victims were Tommy Elliott, 63, and Joshua Barrick, 40, both senior vice presidents. Jim Tutt, 64, market executive. Julianna Farmer, 45, commercial loan expert.
