3 Killed, 2 Wounded in Shooting at Cincinnati Bank

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Chicago Police Department

By Michaela Anderson, Editor-in-Chief

At least three people were killed and two others injured in a shooting at a bank headquarters in downtown Cincinnati on Thursday morning.

According to Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot Isaac, officers responded to a 911 call around 9:10 a.m. local time about an “active shooter” at Fifth Third Bank near the Fountain Square.

Omer Perez, 29, entered a loading dock and opened fire before going into the lobby of the building, where three or four police officers engaged him, and gunfire was exchanged.

Perez is also dead, Isaac said.

The motive for the shooting is unclear.

The victims were sent to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center with gunshot wounds, a woman and three men. Two died, one is in critical condition and one remains in serious condition, said Kelly Martin, senior directer of UC Health.

“Our physicians and staff are focused on caring for the patients and their families. We prepare for situations like these and hope they never happen,” UC Health tweeted.

“This is not normal, and it shouldn’t be viewed as normal. This is abnormal. No other industrialized country has this level of active multiple shootings on a regular basis,” Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley said in a news conference. “I think there’s something deeply sick at work here.”

He also said that the suspect was “actively shooting innocent victims.”

Gun violence is a term all too familiar to most Americans. This is likely due to the fact that we have an extensive history with gun violence.

In 2018 alone, there have been about 40,000 incidents involving guns and 10,000 people who have died because of gun violence.

“Random mass shootings, which plague our nation, are not normal and we as a country can’t allow them to be normalized,” Cranley said in a statement posted on Twitter later Thursday, “Our hearts are broken today.”