LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said he personally knew three of the people shot during a mass shooting Monday morning at a Louisville bank.
Four people were killed and nine were hospitalized after a 23-year-old gunman opened fire inside Old National Bank, near the Louisville Slugger Field and Waterfront Park. One of those killed was a close friend of Beshear.
"Today I'm hurt and I'm hurting and I know so many people out there are as well. We lost four children of God today, one of whom was one of my closest friends," the governor said during a Monday afternoon press conference. "Tommy Elliot helped me build my law career, helped me become governor, gave me advice on being a good dad. One of the people I talk to most in the world and very rarely were we talking about my job."
Earlier in the day, an emotional Beshear had said two of his friends were among the dead and acknowledged he got incorrect info. The governor praised the quick law enforcement response, which he said saved peoples' lives including two of his friends.
"One I received incorrect information this morning I thought was gone and I'd started to mourn and now I know he's okay. And one I got to see in the E.R., that while it's going to take him a while to heal, it's so good to see my friend, see him there with his wife and know he is still with us," Beshear said.
Beshear thanked first responders multiple times for their efforts, emphasizing that the responding officers put their lives on the line to save those in the bank.
"I want to thank [the police officers] and all our other law enforcement officers for responding and doing their best," Beshear said while getting choked up. "To try to save some of my friends and many others."
It was the second time that Beshear was personally touched by a mass tragedy since becoming governor.
In late 2021, one of the towns devastated by tornadoes that tore through Kentucky was Dawson Springs, the hometown of Beshear’s father, former two-term Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear. Andy Beshear frequently visited Dawson Springs as a boy and has talked emotionally about his father’s hometown.
The area where Monday's shooting took place is also a place that Beshear knows intimately. He said he ran his campaign for attorney general out of the building where the shooting occurred.
"I ran my AG campaign out of that building. I know virtually everyone in it," Beshear said. "That's my bank."
Beshear asked the Louisville community to rally behind the families of the victims, and to offer them care as they work through the aftermath of the shooting.
"There are a lot of people who are hurting today," he said. "And if we have a place to focus our energy, I hope it is to surround them with the love and the compassion that we have been so good at showing one another."
Police have identified the gunman as a bank employee. The shooter was shot and killed by responding officers, authorities said.
The victims were identified as Tommy Elliot, 63; James Tutt, 64; Joshua Barrick, 40; and Juliana Farmer, 57.
The shooting took place before the building was open to the public, and witnesses said the attack happened during an early-morning meeting in one of the bank's conference rooms.
It's the second time in a matter of weeks that a U.S. governor has had a personal connection to one of the victims from a mass shooting in their state.
Two weeks ago, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee said one of the victims in the March 28 Nashville school shooting, substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, was a close friend of his wife, Maria, and that the two had been scheduled to have dinner later that day.