LOUISVILLE, Ky. — After a 25-year-old gunman opened fire on a conference room in the Old National Bank, Louisville Metro Police said he waited to ambush responding officers.
Surveillance video inside the bank captured the moments leading up to the shooting and immediately after.
In one still image, the gunman can be seen in the hallway outside the conference room wielding a rifle. Officials said he had legally purchased that rifle from a local dealership six days prior to the shooting.
The second photo released by LMPD shows the shooter in the bank's lobby. Shattered glass is scattered around his feet.
“[He] set up an ambush and waited for officers to respond,” LMPD Deputy Chief Paul Humphrey said Tuesday.
Humphrey said while the gunman waited, he fired at other people who were walking by the bank on Monday.
“He laid in wait for officers to respond and as soon as he saw them, he shot at them," he said. "That’s where he shot Officer Wilt."
Three LMPD officers were among the injured victims. Newly released body camera footage shows the moments officers arrived at the bank. The gunman can be heard firing multiple rounds at police.
At one point, rookie officer Nickolas Wilt, 26, is shot in the head. Another officer is grazed by a bullet. Wilt remains in critical condition.
"Officers cannot see inside [the lobby]," Humphrey said. "It is darker inside than it is outside, and this subject is looking from a higher vantage point out onto them where they cannot see inside what they are approaching.”
Despite being at a disadvantage, Humphrey said officers continued to push toward the gunfire to neutralize the shooter.
LMPD Interim Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel also commended the officers for their heroic actions.
"These officers unflinchingly answered the call to protect and their duty to serve. They confronted violence head-on and neutralized the threat," she said. "Tragically, lives were lost, but countless lives were saved."
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