United States: Gunman kills five, injures six in downtown Louisville

Monday morning’s gunman in Kentucky’s major city of Louisville left “multiple victims” before being “neutralized,” officials in the central US state announced. Police tweeted that the suspect, previously designated as an “active attacker” who caused “multiple victims,” ​​has finally been “neutralized.”

According to NBC affiliate Wave, “Police have confirmed that five people, including a police officer, were killed and six others were injured before being taken to University Hospital. Local news reports said a heavy police presence was in place in the area. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear announced an immediate return to the scene, and The city’s mayor, Craig Greenberg, urged residents to avoid the area.

“About 8:30 a.m.,” according to AgainWave, “at the Old National Bank on East Main Street, calls came in to report an active shooter in the neighborhood. A short time later, the call changed to an active abuser report. Then, around 10:15 a.m. , police said there was no threat of assault.

Shots were fired at a bank

A witness told local channel WHAS11 that he saw a man with an “assault rifle” shooting into the bank. Another witness, Debbie, told local station WDRB that she was driving her car and stopped at a red light when she saw a victim on the ground in front of a hotel. That’s when the shots rang out. “I’m leaving,” she said. Looking back, I saw that one of the window panes of the bank had been broken. Police presence was swift, he recounts. “Police were coming from all over. They were getting out of their cars with guns.

On March 27, a man opened fire at a private elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee, killing three 9-year-old children and three staff members, before being shot dead by police.

“Police were coming from all over. They were getting out of their cars with guns.

Debbie, witness

America is paying a very high price for the proliferation of guns in its territory and easy access to them by Americans. The country has more personal firearms than residents: one in three adults owns at least one gun and nearly one in two adults lives in a household with a gun. The result of this proliferation is a much higher rate of gun deaths in the United States than in other developed countries.

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

(AFP)