shooting kills several at Kentucky bank

Published on : 04/10/2023 – 18:16

New gun drama in the United States. A man opened fire on the morning of Monday, April 10, in a bank in Louisville, Kentucky, killing at least four people and injuring at least eight before being shot.

“We do not know at this time the condition of those who have been transported” to the hospital, said Paul Humphrey, a city police official, during a brief press briefing. “The Lone Shooter Has Died”, wrote the police again on Twitter, after indicating that he had been “neutralized”. “The population is no longer in danger,” she said.

“Here’s what we know so far: Calls came in of an assailant in action around 8:30 a.m. this (Monday) morning” (1230 GMT) at a downtown bank, “agents are there in a few minutes,” she adds on the social network.

Some survivors managed to find refuge in the safe room, said a CNN reporter.

The governor of Kentucky, Andy Beshear, announced to go immediately on the spot.

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A witness told local channel WHAS11 that he saw a man with an “assault rifle” shooting into a bank.

Another witness, named Debbie, told local channel WDRB that she saw a victim on the ground in front of a hotel when she stopped at a red light while driving her car. It was then that shots rang out. “I took off,” she said. “When I turned around, I saw that one of the windows in the bank had been smashed.” The police presence was quickly massive, she describes. “They were coming from everywhere. The police were coming out of their cars with assault rifles.”

More personal weapons than people in the United States

On March 27, a person opened fire at a private elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee (south), killing three 9-year-old children and three employees before being shot dead by police.

The United States pays a very heavy price for the spread of firearms in its territory and the ease with which Americans have access to them.

The country has more individual weapons than inhabitants: one in three adults owns at least one weapon and nearly one in two adults lives in a home where there is a weapon.

The consequence of this proliferation is the very high rate of firearm deaths in the United States, without comparison with that of other developed countries.

Around 49,000 people died from gunshot wounds in 2021, compared to 45,000 in 2020, which was already a record year. This represents more than 130 deaths per day, more than half of which are suicides.

With AFP