Mass Casualty Events Are Not Always What You Think | Louisville Part I

It doesn't quite pass the smell test.

Apr 29, 2023

As we await the authorities-prepared manifesto of the alleged Nashville shooter—which is a strange story for reasons found here, here and here—I want to shift focus over to the Louisville event that happened the following week.

A 25-year-old employee of Old National Bank at Preston Pointe in downtown Louisville, Kentucky named Connor Sturgeon allegedly purchased an AR-15 (unbeknownst to his family) and shot his co-workers1 seemingly out of nowhere. In the past year, he had apparently been suffering from mental health issues—including panic attacks—but co-workers hadn’t seen any red flags. The day prior to the shooting, Connor had attended a family gathering for Easter where everything was normal. Like the Nashville shooter, he allegedly left a manifesto behind that has not been released to the public.

Are we getting the real story or is there something else going on here?

The New York Post published a story2 that Sturgeon’s manifesto reportedly disclosed that he wanted to showcase how easy it was to buy a gun in Kentucky and highlight the mental health crisis in America. In that same article, the authors write that the manifesto is reportedly in the hands of the Louisville Police Department and that they cannot confirm or deny any details found within. So, if the Post can’t even get confirmation on the details from authorities, who or what is their source? Mainstream outlets began spreading a rumor3 that Connor was a disgruntled employee who was losing his job, but there is absolutely no evidence of that whatsoever. It is also reported that Sturgeon recorded the slayings4 on Instagram Live, but that footage doesn’t seem to appear anywhere online. Louisville police are supposedly in possession of that video, but are sitting on it much like the manifesto.

Connor apparently texted his roommate about the crime he was about to commit just prior. This prompted the roommate to contact the Sturgeon family. Connor’s mother called 9115 and seemed baffled about why her son would have a gun (since the family didn’t own any) and why he would be bringing it to work.

Oddly enough, Connor’s father Todd Sturgeon’s last tweet prior to the shooting included a video of San Antonio Spurs’ coach Gregg Popovich calling for gun control at a press conference. Are we really supposed to believe a family that’s really into gun control is going to yield a son who would engage in the same violence that the family is critical about just to make a point?

Todd coached Connor at Floyd Central High School, where the latter apparently suffered multiple concussions from his time on the basketball team.

Connor Sturgeon sporting protective headgear due to past concussions.

Coach Sturgeon is apparently having Connor’s brain tested for chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)6 to see if that played a role in the shooting. Would a head injury lead someone that didn’t show any signs of violence to premeditated mass murder with at least one week of planning? Much like the Nashville shooting, there doesn't seem to be a clear motive.

Police deploy at the scene of a mass shooting near Slugger Field baseball stadium in downtown Louisville — Police responding in business casual attire.

Also like the Nashville case, police released body cam footage unusually fast. Because of age restrictions, YouTube will not allow the video to be viewed on Substack. Other platforms are not supported by Substack at this time. You can watch the footage here.

First, it looks as if we have only been given two still images of Connor inside the bank. There is no footage of him parking. There is no footage of him outside the bank. There is no footage of police encroaching. Ok, fine.

The first thing that jumps out to me is that there is no vest or bag. The standard magazine for an AR-15 holds 30 rounds. Connor allegedly killed 5 employees of Old National Bank and injured even more. After that, he was in a shootout with cops. I would assume he would have to reload at least once. Does he have extra ammunition in his back pocket? Is there a hole in this story? Or is he a guy who doesn’t like guns but happens to be such an incredible marksman that he doesn’t waste bullets? Now, who does that remind me of?

Gun control activist David Hogg shooting a gun while attending Harvard.

Ah, yes. The FBI spook’s kid David Hogg who rose to fame after the alleged Parkland shooting that he survived but also didn’t.

Connor apparently moved quickly until he didn’t.

Another thing that jumps out at me is that Connor is wearing protective eyewear. If you know you are going down in a blaze of…something…why would you choose eyewear over, say, a Kevlar vest? Weird. Guess who else was wearing protective eyewear during their alleged mass shooting?

Watch: Nashville shooter who killed six caught on camera | TOI Original - Times of India Videos — Yet another similarity between Louisville and Nashville.

Going back to the video, we see that Officer Wilt’s body cam footage (starting at :37) is rather brief, presumably because he was shot in the head moments later. Moving on to Officer Galloway (at 1:39) we now have a lot to unpack.

Officer Galloway takes out a rifle but doesn’t grab any extra ammunition. Does he normally keep some on his person? Was this a lapse in judgement? Also, notice how quiet the streets are on this downtown Louisville block. From this angle, there are no people, no parked cars, no traffic…nothing. Were there no employees of Old National Bank or other companies who share the building attempting to make it in to work at that time? Were there no residents from the top-floor condos leaving?

Apparently, both officers are shot at by the perp. Officer Galloway falls off to the left. As he goes down, there is a blur on the ground where Officer Wilt is presumably injured. I’ve watched this segment multiple times and I just can’t make out a person inside the building. If there really was someone shooting at them, he was waiting at the perfect location and the officers rushed right into a trap.

There is significant background noise (i.e. sirens, birds chirping) but there are a few things missing. If the gunman is firing a high-powered rifle with bullets that whizz through the air at thousands of miles per hour, why don’t we hear them? It was reported that Officer Galloway was grazed by a bullet7 on the left side during this exchange. We'll circle back to that in a bit.

Officer Galloway rushed down some steps and took cover behind a large planter. You hear sirens getting close at this point, but no car pulls up at this time. He says “Officer…” presumably toward Wilt. It’s unclear if he forgot the trainee’s name in the heat of the moment.

At this timestamp, he appears to talk on his radio but there is no response.

By this time, officers have moved in on either side of the landing. At around 5:07, it sounds like an officer around the corner screams “We need a long gun!” Shortly after this, the gunman begins shooting once again. Officer Galloway seemingly fires a single round and repositions himself before finishing off the gunman with 3 successive rounds. Now, his gun is mostly off-camera, but I am not seeing casings eject from the rifle (much like Nashville) and I don’t hear a single brass hit the concrete. As Galloway ascends the stairs to confirm the gunman is down, we see there is no blood where Galloway hit the ground moments earlier. One would assume he was protected by his vest.

There was also footage taken by a witness inside a storefront across the street (6:26). If you line up the camera angle, the video seems to have been taken inside the offices of a medical device company called CureTech. Officer Galloway doesn’t seem to be favoring that left side at all. At around the 7:31 mark, there appears to be a cloud of something moving away from the bank entrance. Gun smoke? Glass? CGI? Hard to tell.

We don’t learn too much from this video, but I do find it peculiar they have stripped the audio. Why? The witness also does an incredible job of filming with a steady hand, so much so that you never see their face in the window’s reflection. It’s unclear if there was more to this video that has yet to be released, but I must say it was good timing to have the camera running just before Officer Galloway moved across the landing. Prior to that, they probably wouldn’t have seen much of anything from that angle.

Independent journalists on the scene in Louisville included Nick Sortor, whose appearance on OAN was useless partisan speculation due to an unnecessary focus on pronouns LinkedIn put beside Connor’s name. They were more interested in blaming “radical leftists” (although nothing about his past suggests he was radical at all) than actually figuring out what happened. If people did indeed die, they didn’t seem to care very much.

Later that evening, Nick did sneak closer to the crime scene and got assaulted by a man he believes to be the landlord. Click the image above to watch the video and read Nick’s commentary below it. We know this scene was taped off rather soon after the incident, but he purports that there was no tape at this time. He also claims this is a public sidewalk, but this landing is almost certainly private property.

At the top of the video, we see dark spots on the concrete to the right. This is presumably where Officer Wilt was hit and bleeding. As Nick walks past the entrance, we see a pool of blood where the alleged gunman was taken out back by a potted plant. However, it seems there are no visible bullet holes on the walls inside. Just before the angry man comes outside to grab the phone, we see what appears to be at least two bullet holes in the glass window. The room inside seems to have nothing but desks and computer monitors—no paperwork, no personal effects.

An anonymous person known on the web as A Tried Stone was able to get down to Louisville 2 days after the shooting to get some footage. He draws the conclusion that this was a staged event. He cites the lack of bullet holes, blood stains and general lack of negative energy. The video is a bit long, so I will quickly put in my two cents.

We see the 5 crosses at the base of one stairwell. Matching memorials8 are common in these types of events. A Tried Stone makes note of the full-time security at the scene. There's a man near the building entrance in this frame.

This is the building across N. Preston Street. The shooter was supposed to have been shooting out of the bank entrance towards police officers. There doesn’t appear to be any bullet holes in this building or the trees next to it. He crosses over to Main Street and also finds no damage.

A Tried Stone engages in conversation with two men now on duty and asks about bullet holes. One man seems to think the caliber used was a “very small” .223 that wouldn’t leave much damage. Hmm. At this same moment, the other man knocked on a column which comes into frame on the left side. It’s hollow. As a reference point, AR-15s easily shoot through 5 layers of drywall at 12 feet out.

The first man in the video seems to think Officer Wilt had passed away, which means one must keep a close eye on his supposed recovery9 now happening at a second hospital.

As he ends the conversation, he turns to catch a guy filming or taking photos of him. Now, he could have just been doing an artistic shot for the ‘Gram, but his peculiar behavior suggests something else was going on.

This guy seemingly follows A Tried Stone around the corner. Could he be a spook from the local FBI field office that is “assisting” police with the investigation by collecting tips10 on their own website?

We’re only getting started. More to come.

The Arts™ & The Science™

Discussion about this post

Ready for more?