Quick Takes

Louisville police release video footage of officers approaching mass shooting scene

By: - April 11, 2023 6:36 pm

Image from body camera worn by officers approaching scene of mass shooting. (Screenshot)

Louisville police on Tuesday afternoon released footage from body cameras worn by the two officers who arrived first at a mass shooting scene and who were both wounded by the gunman.?

Rookie Officer Nickolas Wilt, who was shot in the head, is in critical condition.?

After Wilt was hit while approaching the building, his training officer, Cory Galloway, who was grazed by a bullet, briefly took cover behind a concrete planter before shooting and killing the gunman.

Wilt was rescued by officers and transported in a police car to the University of Louisville hospital, said Deputy Chief Paul Humphrey, who narrated the video.?

Humphrey said officers could not see the shooter as they approached from the street but he could see them from inside the foyer of the building in the 300 block of Main Street that houses Old National Bank. The shooter was an employee of the bank.

Humphrey said that after attacking his coworkers with an AR-15 rifle, the shooter set up an “ambush” and lay in wait in the lobby for police.?

Five victims have died; three remained hospitalized yesterday.

Humphrey explained it was impossible for officers to see the shooter as they approached because of the building’s elevation above street level, two sets of doors and and type of glass.

Humphrey praised Wilt and Galloway for staying in the line of fire. “There’s only a few people in this country who can do what they did, not everybody can do that.” And he praised all the first responders who “go in before we can say it’s safe.”?

He said Wilt’s and Galloway’s quick response and the actions of other officers who provided medical treatment saved lives.??

He also called for extending care and compassion to the families of the victims and also to officers who are physically and emotionally hurting.

“The most heroic things at the peak of our career that we do are shrouded in other people’s tragedies.”

Police also released video taken by a bystander from across the street. ?None of the footage played during a news briefing shows victims or beyond the bank’s lobby and its shattered glass.

Humphrey said the video and officer personnel files would be posted on Louisville Metro Police Department social media accounts.

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