US

Hero Cop Shot In The Head By Louisville Gunman Had Been On Force Just 10 Days

[Screenshot/YouTube/USA Today]

Font Size:

One of two police officers wounded during Monday’s mass shooting in Louisville was a rookie who had only been on the force ten days, police announced Monday.

Officer Nickolas Wilt, 26, was struck in the head during a shootout with suspected gunman Connor Sturgeon in downtown Louisville. Wilt “ran towards the gunfire … to save lives,” the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) tweeted, adding that the new recruit remains in critical condition.

“The officer who is in critical condition today … just graduated from the police academy on March 31. I just swore him in, and his family was there to witness his journey to become a police officer,” interim police chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel stated in a press conference.

The firefight broke out around 8:30 a.m. at the Old National Bank, where Sturgeon had reportedly been employed. Thirty minutes prior to the bank’s opening, Sturgeon reportedly opened fire during an employee meeting, ultimately killing five people and wounding eight, including Wilt, CNN reported.

Within three minutes after Sturgeon allegedly opened fire, law enforcement officials were on the scene and moved to stop the attack, which was reportedly being live-streamed by the suspect, according to another report by CNN.  In the resulting firefight, Wilt was shot in the head and another officer was struck in the elbow before Sturgeon was killed, the outlet stated.

“Without a doubt their actions saved lives,” Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg stated, according to CNN. (RELATED: ‘Call It Fate Or God’: Nashville Officers Say They Entered School ‘Without Hesitation’)

Wilt has undergone brain surgery and remains in critical but stable condition at the hospital, Gwinn-Villaroel, confirmed in the press conference.