LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The rookie police officer shot in the head on Monday while responding to an active shooter at a downtown Louisville bank is still in critical condition three days after the shooting, a spokesperson with UofL Hospital said Thursday.
What You Need To Know
- LMPD Officer Nickolas Wilt remains in critical condition following Monday's mass shooting at the downtown Louisville Old National Bank
- The rookie officer was shot in the head while responding to the active shooter
- Bank employee Connor Sturgeon, 25, used an AR-15 assault-style rifle in the attack, killing five coworkers and injuring eight others, including Wilt and Officer Cory Galloway
In an update Thursday afternoon, UofL Hospital confirmed that a sixth patient among the nine taken into their care had been discharged. Two patients, LMPD Officer Nickolas Wilt and another person, remain hospitalized.
Bank employee Connor Sturgeon, 25, used an AR-15 assault-style rifle in the attack Monday at Old National Bank, where he killed five coworkers and injured eight others while livestreaming before police fatally shot him.
Wilt, alongside Officer Cory Galloway, arrived at the scene minutes after the first 911 calls were received. Galloway was training the rookie, who had graduated from the police academy just 10 days prior. Body camera footage released Tuesday showed them walking up the stairs toward the front door when the gunman fired a barrage of bullets.
Wilt was shot in the head, though that was not captured on video. Galloway was grazed in the shoulder, police said. His body camera showed that he fell and then took cover behind a concrete planter at the bottom of the staircase leading to the building. Sirens from the dozens of police cars coming toward them wailed in the background.
A video taken by a bystander across the street, which police also released Tuesday, showed him darting back and forth from one side of the planter to another, trying to get a shot at the gunman.
The front doors of the bank building were glass, elevated from the sidewalk, and because of the reflection, the officers could not see the shooter inside, LMPD Deputy Chief Paul Humphrey said. But he could see them.
He waited, and as other officers arrived, more gunshots rang out and glass shattered. Galloway fired toward the gunman at 8:44 a.m., three minutes after arriving.
UofL Health Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jason Smith, who treated three of the patients from the mass shooting, explained the work that goes into saving victims of gun violence.
The injuries from a rifle, said Smith, simply don’t compare to a handgun.
“The rifle rounds pulverize and liquify tissue because of how fast they’re moving,” said Smith. “They powder bone. They tear large gaping holes in tissue. You don’t see that with a handgun.”
Multimedia Journalist Erin Kelly and the Associated Press contributed to this report.