Louisville Residents Shocked in Wake of Mass Shooting, Hold On to Hope

Community members gather at Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church for a vigil following the shooting at the Old National Bank in Louisville, Ky., on April 10, 2023. Michael Swensen/Getty Images

LOUISVILLE, Ky.—Residents reacted with shock and grief to a mass shooting that left five dead and eight wounded in downtown Louisville on April 10, but they also expressed the message of overcoming hate through love.

“I know I will see Tommy again,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear told reporters, speaking of his good friend Tommy Elliott, 63, who was killed in the attack at the downtown offices of Old National Bank. The governor spoke passionately about his Christian faith at a press conference at the city’s Emergency Operations Center and urged Kentuckians to support one another in their grief.

After the press conference, police officers and other city employees could be seen exchanging hugs and condolences.

Outside, the downtown streets were quiet as most businesses within two blocks of the shooting site were closed and several streets were cordoned off by police.

The attack left many area residents bewildered, including Terry Owens—a city councilor from nearby Radcliff, Kentucky—who had come to support several friends who serve in Louisville’s government.

“I’m shocked,” she told The Epoch Times. “But there, it gets you thinking” about how the shooting could have happened and what might prevent a future occurrence.

“How did he get into the bank? What do the security cameras show? How was he able to get through the secure doors?”

Law enforcement officers respond to an active shooter near the Old National Bank building in Louisville, Ky., on April 10, 2023. Luke Sharrett/Getty Images

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If this could happen in Louisville, even those in smaller cities or rural areas can no longer feel immune from the problem of people committing violence with guns, Owens said.

One police officer, who declined to be identified, was less surprised by the shooting.

“We have an epidemic of mental illness in the country,” he said, pointing to the increasing frequency of mass killings in the United States.

Jenny, a Louisville resident and downtown restaurant worker, expressed dismay at the as-yet unconfirmed rumor that the shooter was motivated by revenge at having been fired.

“It doesn’t make sense,” she told The Epoch Times. “There’s always another job out there.”

The 23-year-old shooter lived on a quiet street in the southeast section of Louisville. A neighbor, Keisha Jones, heard about the incident shortly after arriving at her job as a school nurse.

“I hardly ever saw him,” she told The Epoch Times, noting that she had only caught glimpses of him as the two were leaving for work.

“I saw him just the other day, from the side, and that was about it.”

Whitney Austin, a victim of a mass shooting at a bank in Cincinnati, found the Louisville shooting eerily similar to the one she survived in 2018.

At first, Austin was reluctant to believe that history had repeated itself.

“I thought, ‘Are we sure? Are we sure that’s what’s happening here?’ And then, as the details started to come in, it became really clear that that is what’s happening,” she told The Epoch Times.

“And even worse for me is that the shooting is very similar to the circumstances of mine.”

Yet Austin and many others in the city, although shocked and saddened by the news, didn’t give voice to despair.

“I always have hope,” said Austin, who now advocates against gun violence. “I always have hope that change will come.”