US bank shooter Connor Sturgeon to be posthumously tested for brain damage

US bank shooter Connor Sturgeon will be posthumously tested for chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, commonly suffered by footballers and linked to paranoia.

US bank shooter Connor Sturgeon will be posthumously tested for degenerative brain disease as a potential factor in wild shootout with police, which left five people dead and eight others wounded.

The gunman’s father, Todd Sturgeon, said they test for chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, after it was revealed his son suffered concussions as a high school football player.

CTE is brain deterioration caused by repeated head trauma.

The 25-year-old mass shooter, who reportedly struggled with mental health issues before this week’s rampage at the Old National Bank in Louisville, wore a helmet to play basketball as a result of the repeated concussions.

Experts have linked CTE to symptoms of impaired thinking, aggression, mood swings, depression, and paranoia.

Connor Sturgeon will be posthumously tested for degenerative brain disease. Picture: Supplied

CO-WORKER PLAYED DEAD

US bank shooter Connor Sturgeon shot his former mentor during the senseless rampage, with the woman describing in haunting detail how she played dead to survive.

“I felt him shooting me immediately. I just laid down there,” Dana Mitchell told CBS News.

“I tried not to breathe a lot. I didn’t want to move around. I didn’t want him to see me moving or hear me breathing, because I thought he might shoot me again.”

Sturgeon then walked out of the conference room at Old National Bank as he continued firing off rounds from his newly purchased AR-15 assault rifle, Ms Mitchell added.

The 25-year-old gunman killed five people and wounded eight others, including a rookie cop on his fourth-ever shift who was shot in the head.

The shooter was killed on the scene by police responding to the incident.

Miraculously, Ms Mitchell did not sustain any serious injuries despite being shot by the high powered weapon.

“The bullet went in and out just below the surface,” the bank employee continued.

“It was high enough up that it ripped the skin open. It was a wound about 10 inches long. But didn’t hit anything important.”

Old National Bank employee Dana Mitchell was wounded in the attack by her colleague Connor Sturgeon, whom she once mentored. Picture: Facebook

Ms Mitchell said she “tried_not_to_breathe” because she didn’t want the shooter to see or hear her moving. Picture: Facebook.

According to Ms Mitchell, she had no idea Sturgeon was capable of carrying out such an atrocity.

“I knew Connor very well. I was his mentor his first year at the bank,” she said.

“He never made me feel like he would have done this. Not in a million years. He was very kind and soft-spoken.”

Ms Mitchell told the program that it was no immediately clear what was happening when she suddenly saw her former mentee brandishing the weapon.

“When I saw him in the hallway with the gun I thought, ‘Why would he bring that here to show us?’ It didn’t even register to me he was ready to shoot,” she said.

“Everybody there but one person was in a conference room for a meeting. The only person that was there was in the hallway. I saw him standing in the hallway with a gun and I saw him shoot the person in the hallway. Everyone started running, but we had nowhere to run.”

Ms Mitchell said she was still coming to terms with the massacre.

“I never imagined this would happen at my place of work or to me,” she said.

“You see it on TV and it happens to other people but it doesn’t happen to people you know. But this is one of those things.”

MUM’S DESPERATE 911 CALL: ‘HE HAS A GUN’

On Wednesday, Police released a 911 call made by the Louisville bank shooter’s mother, who called to warn of her son’s sinister plans.

Connor Sturgeon’s mother, Lisa, made the panicked call after the gunman’s roommate told her that her son had a gun and was on his way to the bank.

“My son might be [redacted], because he has a gun and he’s heading to the Old National [Bank],” she said. “This is his mother, I’m sorry I’m getting details second hand. Oh my lord,” she told the dispatcher, according to New York Times.

“I don’t know what to do. I need your help. He’s never hurt anyone. He’s a really good kid,” she added.

The Louisville gunman's mum made a frantic 911 call after being told her son had a gun. Picture: Supplied.

The emergency dispatcher then asks her if she knows what her son is doing.

“I don’t know, I don’t know anything. He doesn’t even own a gun, I don’t know where he got a gun. His roommate called me, he was concerned. I don’t know what I’m doing.”

The mother confirmed her son worked for the bank, and told the dispatcher she was about to make her way to the bank.

“I don’t want you to go to the location, OK,” the officer instructed. “I don’t want you to go to the location ma’am.

“We have a situation that is going on down there right now, we’ve already had calls from other people and I do not need you to go to the location at this time OK, it’s dangerous there.”

The call was received at 8:41am, which was also the exact moment police arrived at the scene and confronted Sturgeon.

The killer shot five people, and injured nine, before being shot and killed by police. While he was an employee at the bank, his motive for the killings is no known.

The first emergency call came from a woman at another branch of the bank who saw the mass shooting during a video conference before the bank opened.

The call came as police arrived on the scene. Picture: supplied.

“I just watched it. I just watched it on a Teams meeting,” the woman said. “We were having a board meeting.”

“I saw somebody on the floor. We heard multiple shots and people started saying ‘Oh my God,’ and then he came into the board room.”

Another witness also called 911, whispering amid gunshots that she was hiding in a closet as Sturgeon killed her co-workers.

“I know who it is,” she said. “He works with us. Help!”

“Just stay quiet,” the dispatcher advises.

A person from a nearby business also called 911, reporting a person with a “shotgun” entering the bank.

“He was kind of, like, jogging around like he was trying to get somewhere in a hurry,” the caller said.