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Police: 4 Dead, At Least 8 Hurt In Louisville Bank Shooting; Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY) and Officials Deliver Press Conference. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired April 10, 2023 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[11:00:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: We're following breaking news for you out of Louisville, Kentucky. You're getting a bird's eye view of the scene there. Police say at least five people are dead and six others injured, including a police officer. The mass shooting occurred at the Old National Bank which is right across the street from Slugger Field. Any moment now we expect to hear from the police, the mayor of Louisville, and the Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear. We will bring you that press conference exactly as it happens.

We have also learned that President Biden has been informed of the mass shooting. The White House says they will have more to share later on. I want to bring in our senior crime and justice correspondent Shimon Prokupecz. Shimon, what more are you hearing there? We know that this happened before the bank was open around 8:30, which gives us a little bit of a clue of what may have been going on and who the suspect who was now dead is.

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Right. And by all accounts at this point, based on what we're hearing from witnesses and law enforcement, this was quite a chaotic scene. Police officers arriving and then within minutes, that they were there, they had encountered, according to police, they were fired upon, there were gunshots. And then we have seen indications where glass has been broken at the front of what appears to be the front of this bank. It has happened as you said, around 8:30 this morning before the bank was open for business.

We're hearing from people inside the bank having to hide inside the vault, the bank's vault to try and protect themselves. And police we believe at this point encountered the gunman as to how the gunman died and ultimately we don't know yet. We're waiting to learn more from police. But it's five dead six injured, according to police, including a police officer who was also injured. And so hopefully here in the next few minutes, we're certainly hoping to learn more information.

Certainly you can tell early on when police got there, they went right into action going towards the gunfire. It appears then also searching throughout that area. There's residential buildings, there's a parking lot, other businesses, everything was shut down. Most of that area was cordoned off and shut down.

SIDNER: We are going to go straight to the police who are giving a press conference.

DEPUTY CHIEF PAUL HUMPHREY, LOUISVILLE METRO POLICE: Louisville Metro Safe received a report of shots fired and a possible active shooter at 3:33 East Main Street at the Old National Bank. Within three minutes of being dispatched, officers arrived on scene and encountered the suspect almost immediately still firing gunshots. Officers exchanged gunshots with that suspect and ultimately the suspect did die at the scene.

We're trying to confirm if that suspect died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound or was killed by officers at this time. At least two officers were shot during this exchange of gunfire. One is currently in surgery at University of Louisville hospital. At least four more victims were confirmed to be deceased inside the location, as well as eight that are now currently being treated at University Hospital. Two are critical, one of those being the officer.

We're currently working to identify all of the victims, work with their families for reunification and provide services to the families and the victims. The investigation I want to reiterate is ongoing. This will be a long scene. It will take pretty much into the night. So I'll still ask that the public avoid the area. I want to reiterate that there is no active threat. We believe this as a lone gunman involved in this that did have a connection to the bank.

We're trying to establish what that connection was to the business but it appears he was a previous employee. It is clear from the officers' response that they absolutely saved people's lives. This is a tragic event. But it was -- it was the heroic response of officers that made sure that no more people were more seriously injured than what happened. We will continue to provide updates as soon as possible. We will have another press briefing following this at 3:00 p.m. today. I will turn it over to Mayor Craig Greenberg at this time.

MAYOR CRAIG GREENBERG (D), LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY: Thank you Deputy Chief Humphrey. First I asked that everyone around our city, around the country, around the world pray with us for those who are currently at Louisville hospital injured, fighting for their lives as a result of another act of gun violence. And I want to thank all of the first responders the brave and heroic men and women of LMPD who thanks to their efforts quickly respond bonded to the emergency call.

[11:05:00]

And as you just heard from Deputy Chief Humphrey, without a doubt their actions saved lives. There will be a lot more information we are able to provide as the day goes on. But I want everyone in the city to know that not-withstanding tragedies like today, when multiple people are killed by gun violence, not-withstanding tragedies when individuals are killed by gun violence, our community will continue to come together.

We will find ways to love and support one another and the families and friends who have been directly impacted by these acts of gun violence. And we will come together as a community to work to prevent these horrific acts of gun violence from continuing here and around the state. I want to thank again everyone at LMPD from the Louisville Fire Department, from EMS, from the state agencies and now federal agencies that are also involved.

We are a safer community, we are a stronger community, thanks to the work of our law enforcement. And again, my prayers go out to the families who have lost loved ones today. My prayers go out to the officers who are at the hospital right now and my thanks for all of them. Through with -- together, we will get through this together. Finally, I want to introduce Governor Beshear, who has joined us and who is assisting with the efforts. Governor?

GOV. ANDY BESHEAR (D-KY): I want to start by thanking the brave heroes in LMPD and our other responding organizations. LMPD made it to this scene in a matter of minutes after receiving the call. And there is no doubt in my mind that their efforts saved lives and they put their own on the line. And we have at least one officer in surgery right now that is there because he took those actions to try to protect the people of Louisville.

I want to thank Louisville Fire, Louisville Metro EMS, and Emergency Management, and the Louisville Sheriff's Office for the immediate response. They've now been joined by the FBI, ATF, Homeland Security, Kentucky State Police have requested in the Louisville Office of Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods in this response.

This is awful. I have a very close friend that didn't make it today. And I have another close friend who did neither and one who's at the hospital that I hope is going to make it through. So when we talk about praying, I hope people will for those that we are hoping can make it through the surgeries that they're going through. And then we've got to do what we have done these last three years after everything, we've got to wrap our arms around these families, and everybody who needs it, don't be afraid to get some help.

Our bodies and our minds are not meant to go through these types of tragedies. And so I hope that all the brave officers that stepped into the line of fire, that are worried about one of their fellow officers will reach out for help when they need it. I hope every one of those bank employees and folks in that building one that I know well. And my AG campaign was out of that building. Virtually everyone in it, that's my bank. I hope that they will all reach out and get the help that they need.

There are a lot of people that are hurting today. And if we have a place to focus our energy, I hope it is to surround them with the love and the compassion that we have been so good at showing one another. I want people to know that while today is a horrific act, I do believe that this is a safe community, with officers doing their very best each and every day. And that's what we saw here.

Yes, I know that there are steps that the police department is taking to do things better after a recent report. But we certainly saw I think the very best from them today. And I want to thank them and all our other law enforcement officers are responding and doing their best to try to save some of my friends, and many others. Thank you all.

[11:10:04]

HUMPHREY: Any questions?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible).

HUMPHREY: The other one that appears to be non-critical injuries at this time.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible).

HUMPHREY: I'm not sure on the status of that yet. It'd be part of investigation. Excuse me?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible).

HUMPHREY: It appears the shooter was, I don't know if it was an active employee or former employee, but the shooter did have a connection to the location.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible).

HUMPHREY: No.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible).

HUMPHREY: We don't know that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible).

HUMPHREY: He asked, was there any form of security at the bank, we don't know that either. That'll be part of investigation. So one more.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible).

HUMPHREY: We have resources available to make sure the rest of the city is kept safe. And I do want to reiterate that. We are managing our resources with the state, local and federal partners to make sure that all services to the city maintain while we're maintaining the scene at the same time. So thank you, the next update will be at 3 o'clock. Thank you.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we just received quite a bit of new and additional information, all of it basically heart wrenching about what we're hearing here, as the governor put it, this is awful. The governors -- I mean just such a tragic day in Louisville. The governor has the connection himself to people in the bank, at least two people the governor said had died were close friends of his.

But the latest that we learned from this press conference, the latest update very importantly, is that there are four victims who are dead. The gunman is also deceased. Eight people are being treated at the local hospital. Two people in critical condition, one of those in critical condition is an officer who responded to the scene. There are at least two officers shot and one of them is in surgery as we speak. Let me bring in right now. Go ahead, John. I'm sorry. JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: One other key piece of information, the officer there just said it does appear that the shooter was a previous employee of the bank. He said that the shooter had a connection to the bank it seems. It appears a previous employee. Also said that it took the police three minutes to show up when they arrived. The shooter inside obviously was still firing.

BOLDUAN: Still firing and that's what they encountered upon arrival. Joining us right now is CNN senior law enforcement analyst, former Deputy Director of the FBI, Andrew McCabe, CNN national security analyst, Juliette Kayyem, John Miller sticking -- he was here with us throughout this press conference listening to all of this. Andy, your reaction to what we've just learned, the latest update from Louisville.

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes, so obviously a solid press conference by the chief there, giving us some really relevant information, taking couple questions, but then getting off the stage and letting us know when they'll be back. As far as the incident is concerned, I mean, what we've heard described is you can only imagine how obscure and violent the scene was that these police officers showed up on only three minutes from the phone call until they arrive on scene which is, you know, really a pretty, pretty remarkable response time.

And the shots are still being fired as they arrive. They immediately deploy their own weapons, gain entry to the building. And one way or another we've seen those windows shot out on the front side of the building, engaged with the shooter and then the shooter is killed not -- it's not clear yet whether he was killed from police gunfire or if he took his own life. Obviously, we'll learn more about that as we go forward.

Just, you know, maybe the 15th mass shooting in the first 10 days of this month. What we're seeing around the country now are more and more fast, effective, lethal responses by law enforcement, and yet they are still and always will be behind the first shots, the first acts of violence and potentially the first steps and that's how you get situations like we have today.

BERMAN: And I have to say, it is getting harder and harder to find anyone who does have a personal connection to a shooting like this, including the Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, who said I have a very close friend who didn't make it today. And then got emotional and appeared to also say another who didn't also and also one who was in surgery right now.

Governor Beshear, his campaign office when he ran for AG was in that building. He said it's his bank. That is the bank he uses so he has a personal connection there. Juliette, we did get that bit of information where the shooter appears to have been a previous employee.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes. And relevant to one aspect of this which is of course motive as we were discussing last hour just historically as someone who, you know, studies these kinds of crises, you just don't see mass casualty events related to bank robberies, mostly because the motive is to get the money and use it at some stage and think personnel are trained. And they know that.

[11:15:25]

In other words, they will not engage the shooter. They will give the shoot -- the person money, and they want them to go. So this clearly, at least from what we knew an hour ago, look different than then what we what we know about robberies, we now know it is what we would call a traditional workplace violence event, picking up on what Andy said, McCabe, you know, three minutes, three minutes is really fast.

It's excellent with law enforcement response time, and you don't get better than that. And we have this many dead and probably others who may not make it. And so we can look at motive all the time we want. But we do have a very quick, probably relatively mostly perfect response. And still we have this many dead. I want to just say two things about the people that you saw, with all three people that you saw, just because these this does matter.

Beshear is known as the consoler in chief amongst governors who I work with, because the state has been hit him a lot by natural disasters and crime and other instances. He is -- he knows what he's doing. And I thought he performed successfully in that regard. The Mayor, Mayor Greenberg is trying to bring Louisville back to life. And so they want to tell the community that this is a safe community. And then the police department is under a new as of last month, the Department of Justice review or complaints regarding civil rights violations.

So they come to this as well, with a little bit of history, which the governor mentioned, that's the dynamics that you saw today, all of them unified to find out what happened and then to have a larger discussion about a why does this keep happening.

BOLDUAN: John Miller, you're sitting through -- you are watching this press conference. So what's your reaction to kind of the new additional details that we heard you've been hearing some more information from your sources as well?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, it confirms a lot of what we were building up to before the press conference, which is they arrived and we're immediately confronted by the shooter shooting. They took immediate action to enter had to breach the bank with breaching tools, sledgehammers and so on to get through, confronted the shooter.

There is the question that Deputy Chief Paul Humphrey has raised, did they -- did police shoot him in that confrontation or did he take his own life? Still not clear. What we do know is he's a former or current employee of the bank, according to Deputy Chief Humphrey's understand him to be a portfolio -- a syndicate manager and portfolio specialist who started at the bank in 2018, as an intern, worked his way up into a significant position.

And apparently, as Juliette said, this is classic workplace violence. What we're told is he was either a former employee or about to become one. It could explain something that we've grappled with in our conversations here this morning, which is, if the bank doesn't open until 9:00 a.m., how did the shooter get in? As a current employee or former employee, he would have been recognized. Somebody may have unlocked the door to let him in.

So we're seeing a picture that is starting to become a richer picture. And a little clearer as to motive, which is going to be personal against the bank or a personal against the people inside.

SIDNER: Yes. And now there are eight people injured. I think we learned there are more people injured.

BERMAN: Two critical.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two critical.

BERMAN: In surgery right now, including one is still in surgery.

SIDNER: Yes. Let's listen to a little bit of sound. I think this is a person whose wife, if I'm not mistaken, was inside of the bank at the time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's at the bank at this building. Their protocol is to get into the vault. Me and her have had that conversation several times. It hit the panic button, go to the vault. Don't fight. Don't do anything. Lock yourself up. Hide. And let it go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Get into the vault. They followed protocol, clearly. But obviously when somebody has a deadly weapon, you can't run fast enough. Mr. McCabe, I know you are standing by on all of this. I think this is -- we're at like 129 mass shootings in this country so far this year, and that's more than the days of the year that we've already been through. This is different though than we've seen in the recent past. It's looks like it's potentially someone who was disgruntled. What are you learning?

[11:20:03]

MCCABE: Well, I mean that's right Sara, it's indeed, you know, in the most kind of specific details. It's different from the last mass shooting that we all got together to talk about the shooting in Nashville Covenant School. But every one of these is unique in some respect, each one of these mass shooters are different people and potentially carry different motivations, different grievances, different mental health challenges, whatever that mixture might be, that brings them to this moment where they're unleashing this kind of violence on their fellow citizens.

But there are also some strong similarities. The similarity is the easy and in most cases, as we've seen, lawful access to high powered military weapons. Now, we don't know what the -- we haven't heard any details about what the shooter was using in this shooting. And we'll, of course learn that as we go a little bit further through the day. But, you know, the thing that links all of our problems with gun violence in this country, be they mass shootings, be at street crime, be it suicide by firearm, is the easy availability, the, you know, how easy it is for every American to acquire these incredibly lethal weapons.

So, you know, yes, each one of these situations is different. And it's important for us to know as much as we can about them, and about the shooters who commit them. But I think it's also important to step back and look at those commonalities just address what's undeniable. People get fired around the world and are mad about it every day, and thousands, hundreds of thousands of places, people have mental illness struggles, in every country in the world.

People unfortunately take their own lives in every country in the world, but no place on earth experiences, the frequency and the mass violence and particularly related to firearms, like we do here in America.

BOLDUAN: Let's talk about the response time. I know, everyone has kind of highlighted that. But to put a fine point on it, I want to play for everyone, what a moment when you can hear shots ringing out and you can hear the initial response with what appears to be law enforcement or security or someone running through this this video. Let's watch this one more time together.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Active shooter at the bank. Active shooter at the bank. Get out of your car. Active shooter at the bank.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: And you can you can hear pretty clearly, Juliette, active shooter at the bank after you hear some of those gunshots ringing out. And also then we learned the response time from LMPD was three minutes after they were dispatched. They arrived at the scene.

KAYYEM: Yes, so we have a concept in disaster management. It's called extending the runway, it's just a way of thinking about time when these catastrophes happen, and what you want to give people, the community, the potential victims is time to get away. And that also gives you time to have law enforcement come in.

So what we know from at least the eyewitnesses and certainly the police reporting, people within the bank knew exactly what to do. And some of them got into the vault very quickly. We also know there was a three minute, there was only three minutes for the police to come in, you know, in terms of time, that is fantastic.

And still -- lots of people are dead, and we don't know how many more dead from their injuries who are now at the hospital. And so then that gets to an -- direct to McCabe's point. And I want to make this clear, every one of these instances has two questions. What is the motive? What is the means? In all of these, what is the motive can be answered differently. We -- is it a bank robbery? Is it workplace violence? Is it X, Y or Z? Just a disgruntled person?

We don't know. And they're going to be different. And if we just focus on that, we're missing the story of what are the means. And then I look at all the numbers coming out of this year and all the mass shootings and all of a sudden the means all look the same, right?

And that's where people view this as a political discussion. Look at the three of us very political backgrounds, very different professional backgrounds, in terms of safety and security are analysts on right now, all say I can't predict motive all the time, or it's going to differ the mean means, you can't deny the means are the same. And so it's not political to separate those discussions and simply say we can learn something from the means in terms of being able to give people more time to either protect themselves or for police to come. That is how this debate will unfold for the years to come.

[11:25:22]

BERMAN: And of course, we mentioned that Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear has a connection, he says. He says that he knows two people who didn't make it from the shooting seem to suggest he knows two people who were killed there and a third who was in surgery right now. I just want to point out that the Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg survived a shooting at his campaign office a year ago, I knew he looks familiar. I spoke to him a year ago when he survived, you know, murder attempt at his campaign office.

So there's an extraordinary tragic connection that so many people have to this type of gun violence. John Miller, you know, in Mayor Greenberg has made, you know, fighting gun violence part of his administration in the short period of time throughout the rest of his campaign and this, but as you pointed out, right from the beginning, if you respond in three minutes, and there are still five people dead, or four people dead plus the shooter, it does tell you the limits of even a perfect response.

MILLER: I mean, I've looked at all the studies on this, and they're evolving, unfortunately, because the data set is growing literally week by week. But what we see commonly in the active shooter realm is in the first two and a half to four minutes is usually the key moments of lethality when the active shooter is, is engaged with innocent victims before the police get there.

So even if that response is two minutes and 30 seconds, most of the killing at that point is done. And then, you know, if they engage the shooter, we know those three outcomes, either the person surrenders takes their own life or is taken down by police and sometimes killed. But that critical time is why when they get there, there's really much less assessment, you know, much less of the hand wringing, we saw on places like Uvalde, mostly immediate action, rapid deployment, which is what we saw again today. And that takes a tremendous amount of courage.

SIDNER: Because you don't know. And you guys are all mentioning like, how many times we see this over and over and over again, this is the 16th shooting since the shooting at Covenant Elementary School in Nashville, which seems so, so recent to all of us. So it's happening more like you said, unfortunately, the dataset is getting.

MILLER: And look at the common threads. Even at the Covenant Elementary School, you saw the governor of that state come on and say, one of the teachers who was killed was supposed to come and have dinner with my wife, you know. So we know these things touch everybody, but we're seeing with the volume of activity, that they're beginning to touch the very people that we look to for solutions to this problem, which is the top elected officials in the country.

BERMAN: All right, we are getting new information in. We are expecting another briefing in just two minutes. We do know the four people have been killed. A shooter is also dead. Eight people injured right now, two of them in critical condition. Tragic mass shooting in Louisville, Kentucky at a bank. CNN News Central continues right after this.

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