Connor Sturgeon concussions as star athlete and basketball player may have altered brain chemistry and made Louisville shooter prone to aggression, mood swings, depression, paranoia and violence in line with scientific research.
Could ongoing repetitive head injuries in contact sports led to the changing of the Louisville gunman’s brain chemistry and made him more susceptible to aggression and violence?
Connor Sturgeon, the 23 year old suspected of killing five and injuring nine at the Old National Bank in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, was a star athlete in high school who allegedly suffered so many concussions he wore a helmet at basketball games.
The former athlete and star basketball player’s head injuries led to commentators on social media wondering to what degree, if any, the Louisville shooter’s actions were influenced by impaired or altered brain chemistry and inclination to increased aggression.
Back when he was a freshman at the Floyd Central High School in Floyds Knobs, Indiana, Sturgeon was an all-round athlete, playing basketball, football and running track according to reports.
As his father was the head coach of the team, a former classmate told The Daily Beast, Sturgeon was known as ‘Mr. Floyd Central.’
5th Louisville shooting victim, mom of two, 57, dies after multiple surgeries
Louisville shooter Connor Sturgeon was star athlete but suffered ‘multiple concussions’ https://t.co/Al84nYRKqg pic.twitter.com/8whkCwNEyP
— New York Post (@nypost) April 10, 2023
Correlation between athletes who suffered multiple concussions going on to harm themselves or others
However, the classmate, noted Sturgeon oddly wore a helmet while playing basketball due to multiple concussions he suffered while playing football.
‘We played football together in eighth grade. He was out most of the year because he had multiple concussions,’ he told The Daily Beast. ‘Then he had a couple more in high school.’
A photo from Sturgeon’s junior year with the Floyd Central High School basketball team showed him wearing a helmet at a game where he scored nearly half the team’s points.
The classmate said he couldn’t help but think about Sturgeon’s high school injuries and link them to other incidents where athletes who have suffered concussion have gone on to harm themselves or others.
In recent years doctors have made numerous links between football players and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy [CTE], a degenerative brain disease caused by repeeated blows to the head.
Those diagnosed with CTE usually have impaired thinking and memory and are prone to aggression, mood swings, depression and paranoia, according to the Concussion Legacy Foundation.
Disgraced New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, who was convicted of murder in 2015, was found to have had chronic CTE after his 2017 prison suicide.
Allegedly the perpetrator Connor Sturgeon make have had CTE due to multiple concussions throughout his athletic career. Do every single perpetrator of Gun Violence suffer from CTE? No but when TBI’s like Concussions within athletes go unchecked it’s a recipe for disaster https://t.co/qAvChvs4xR
— Rayshawn Ordway (@politics011) April 10, 2023
Disgruntled bank worker filmed & posted Louisville shooting on Instagram. Warned havoc was imminent.https://t.co/jzVDDRPFq6 #ConnorSturgeon #Connor Sturgeon #Louisville bank #louisvillekentucky #Louisville shooting #Kentucky #OldNationalBank #Old National Bank shooting
— Scallywagandvagabond (@ScallywagNYC) April 10, 2023
Ominous Instagram warnings leading up to Louisville bank shooting
During his senior year, Sturgeon won the 2016 News and Tribune Sports Performance Yearly Award for Boys Track Athlete of the year.
After graduating high school, Sturgeon went on to the University of Alabama to study finance, earning his master of science in finance in 2020.
While attending the university, Sturgeon worked as a summer intern for the Old National Bank for three consecutive years, eventually joining as a commercial development professional in 2021 and a full-time associate and portfolio banker last year, according to his LinkedIn account.
While his Instagram account where he filmed the shooting has been taken down, screengrabs shared on social media show Sturgeon appearing unsteady in the hours leading up to the shooting.
His alleged final posts included meme photos with the captions: ‘I know what I have to do but I don’t know if I have the strength to do it,’ and ‘I could burn this whole place down.’
Sturgeon’s last post read: ‘They won’t listen to words or protests. Let’s see if they hear this.’
Police are still working to determine a motive for the deadly shooting, where the five victims were identified as high ranking members of the Louisville bank branch.
Sturgeon had learned he was about to be fired from the bank, according to CNN, who said he also left a note for his parents and a friend explaining his intention to go and shoot up the bank.
Among the victims was Tommy Elliott, 63, and Joshua Barrick, 40, both senior vice presidents; Jim Tutt, 64, a market executive; and Juliana Farmer, 45, a commercial loan specialist along with fifth victim who died in hospital, Deana Eckert, 57, a mother of two.
