The 25-year-old shooter who killed five people at a Louisville bank earlier this month met with a psychiatrist four days prior to the deadly shooting, his mother told TODAY.
In an exclusive interview with TODAY's Savannah Guthrie, Todd and Lisa Sturgeon revealed that their son, Connor Sturgeon, was struggling mentally in the year leading up to the incident, and that his parents joined him for an appointment with a psychiatrist the week before the shooting as a result.
Lisa Sturgeon shared that on Tuesday, April 4, her son called her explaining he'd had a panic attack. She set up an appointment with a psychiatrist the next day, and she and her husband both joined their son for a meeting on Thursday.
"He was willing to talk to me. He had told us before he would never do such a thing like that to us," she told Savannah. "We thought he was coming out of a crisis."
Connor Sturgeon, who was an employee of Old National Bank on East Main Street in Louisville, arrived at the bank on April 10 and opened fire while live-streaming on social media. He killed five and injured at least eight people. Within three minutes, officers responded and exchanged gunfire with the shooter, ultimately killing him.
Police said after the shooting that six days before the event, Connor Sturgeon legally purchased an AR-15.
"We know that Connor was seeing two mental health professionals and that he was able to walk in," Todd Sturgeon said. "From what we have been told is that he walked in ... and walked out with a weapon and ammunition in 40 minutes."
"Because of his mental condition, he should not have been able to purchase the gun," Lisa Sturgeon added. "If there had been a delay or something of that nature, that would have been helpful."
The five killed were identified as Tommy Elliott, 63; Juliana Farmer, 45; Jim Tutt, 64; Josh Barrick, 40, and Deana Eckert, 57.
One of the injured, 26-year-old police officer Nickolas Wilt, had only been sworn in as a police officer 10 days prior. Wilt is still in critical condition after he was shot in the head.
Lisa Sturgeon expressed her deepest condolences to the families of those impacted from the shooting.
“We are so sorry. We are heartbroken,” Lisa Sturgeon emotionally told Savannah. “We wish we could undo it, but we know we can’t.”
"He did this to totally innocent individuals," she added. "There was no provocation, no justification, no rationalization at all."
Police released 911 calls from the morning of the shooting, one of which was from Lisa Sturgeon pleading with an operator to help stop her son after his roommate called her with concerns.
“I don’t know what to do, I need your help,” Lisa Sturgeon can be heard saying on the recording. “He’d never hurt anyone, he’s a really good kid.”
The families of four of the victims declined to comment, but the family of victim Joshua Barrick shared the following statement with TODAY: "A husband was taken, a father was taken, a brother and son was taken. He did nothing to deserve this, he simply went to work one day just like all of us do. The fact that anyone can walk in and buy a semiautomatic weapon, its only purpose being to kill many in seconds, is simply wrong. Enough is enough. Inaction is not an option. We deserve to be safe in our communities — whether that be at the bank, the grocery store, our schools, or anywhere else. We are simply heartbroken, this didn’t have to happen."
