Andy Beshear.Photo: Bruce Schreiner/AP/Shutterstock
Kentucky Gov.Andy Beshearsays two of his close friends “didn’t make it” in a mass shooting that took placeat a Louisville bank Monday morning. Another friend, Beshear told reporters in a press conference, is now in the hospital.
“This is awful. I have a very close friend who 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,” a visibly emotional Beshear said, hours after a gunman killed four people and wounded at least nine others, including two officers at the Old National Bank in downtown Louisville.
Beshear, 45, continued: “When we talk about praying, I hope people will — for those that we are hoping can make it through the surgeries that they are going through. And we’ve got to do what we have done these last three years, after everything. We’ve got to wrap our arms around these families.”
“And everybody who needs it: don’t be afraid to get some help,” the Democratic governor, who was elected in 2019, said. “Our bodies and our minds are not meant to go through these types of tragedies.”
Beshear added that the building housing the bank where the shooting took place was also home to his campaign office when he ran for attorney general, a role he held from 2016 until 2019.
“My AG campaign was out of that building … That’s my bank,” Beshear said.
Other Kentucky lawmakers have also responded to the shooting.
In a statement, Sen.Mitch McConnellwrote: “We send our prayers to the victims, their families, and the city of Louisville as we await more information,” while Sen.Rand Paulsaid, “Our hearts break for the families of those lost.”
PresidentJoe Bidenalso expressed his condolences on Monday, writing on Twitter: “Once again, our nation mourns after a senseless act of gun violence.”
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Last year, Biden called for areinstatement of the ban on assault weaponsand high-capacity magazines that was passed in 1994 — a call he’sreiterated in recent weeksafter other recent mass shootings, likeone at a Nashville school.
Biden spearheaded thepassage of a gun safety billlast year, though that legislation does not put further restrictions on the sale of assault weapons.
TheBipartisan Safer Communities Act"enhances certain restrictions and penalties on firearms purchases; promotes evidence-based best practices for school safety; authorizes grants to expand access to mental health services; and appropriates emergency funding for mental health resources and school safety measures," according to a White Housebriefing.
source: people.com
