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THE CENTER SQUARE

At least five people are dead, and eight people, including two law enforcement officers, suffered injuries after a shooting in a downtown Louisville building Monday morning.

One officer was injured critically, as was another person, Louisville Metro Police Department Deputy Chief Paul Humphrey told reporters. Nine people, including two police officers, were treated for injuries from the shooting. At least three patients had been discharged.

Gov. Andy Beshear and Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg were both visibly shaken as they spoke to reporters. Greenberg survived a shooting attempt at his campaign office a little more than a year ago as he was running for election.

“This is awful,” a choked-up Beshear said. “I have a very close friend that didn’t make it today, and I have another close friend who didn’t either. And one who is at the hospital that I hope is going to make it through.”

The incident occurred shortly after 8:30 a.m. at the Old National Bank branch within the Preston Pointe building on East Main Street. Humphrey told reporters the suspected shooter was confirmed dead at the scene and apparently had a connection to the bank, possibly as either a current or former employee.

“We’re trying to confirm if that suspect died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound or was killed by officers at this time,” he said.

Humphrey said at least two officers encountered the shooter and exchanged shots. He described the officers’ actions as heroic.

“It is clear from the officers’ response that they absolutely saved people’s lives,” he said.

The incident is the latest mass shooting in the country and happened two weeks after seven were killed in a shooting at a Christian school in Nashville, Tenn.

At 8:53 am, the Louisville Metro Police Department tweeted an alert urging people to stay away from the area, and officials confirmed there were multiple casualties 34 minutes later.

Moments before, an individual located a block away from the shooting posted two short videos from the scene on the social media site. Gunshots could be heard in both, and one also showed what appeared to be a police officer running toward cars on East Main Street, a busy downtown corridor, telling people to get out of their vehicles because of an active shooter.