LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- According to the ATF, the rifle used in the mass shooting at Old National Bank was scheduled to be destroyed by March 15.

April 10th, 2023, the calls went out of a mass shooting happening in downtown Louisville.

“I think it's certainly a day that locals are never going to forget,” Special Agent in Charge Shawn Morrow said.

Officers and agents, including those with ATF, swarmed the site of the Old National Bank branch.

Nearly a year of filtering through documents, interviews, evidence, a manifesto, and the hurting hearts of five families, LMPD closed its investigation.

Louisville Old National Shooting Victims with Background.png

Victims of the Old National Bank shooting in downtown Louisville on Monday, April 10, 2023 were identified as Joshua Barrick, 40; Jim Tutt, 64; Tommy Elliott, 63;  Juliana Farmer, 45 and Deana Eckert, 57. (WDRB Graphic)

The ATF seized the Radical Firearms RF-15 rifle and its investigation remains open.

“So there are no new revelations that ATF has. The fact that our case remains open is largely an administrative thing,” Morrow said.

Special Agent in Charge Shawn Morrow said to close the investigation they need a certificate the rifle was destroyed.

“The way that we're handling this firearm in terms of the investigation and also the destruction is completely in line with the hundreds of other firearms that we handle annually,” Morrow said.

The ATF seizes thousands of weapons a year. The ones they are going to destroy, including the one used to kill five bank executives last April, are sent to an ATF branch in West Virginia to be pulverized.

“That’s our method of destruction is shredding it,” Morrow said.

“It’s a sort of an industrial type setting if you can imagine an industrial garage or an industrial machine shop…they are put on a conveyor belt and dumped into a shredder with large industrial teeth and they grind the metal into small bits… when the process is complete, they have scrap that is then destroyed a third time,” Morrow said.

IMAGES | Crosses, notes, flowers part of growing memorial at site of Louisville mass shooting

People continue to stop at the Old National Bank on Main Street downtown to honor the victims of the shooting. 

Morrow said they are treating this rifle like every other firearm headed for destruction, but he knows it's not exactly the same.

“It’s a heinous crime where we have many of our Louisvillians and our local citizens that were either killed or harmed,” Morrow said.

Once destroyed, the metal is sold off to scrap yards.

The only trace left is a document proving the metal and steel that took innocent lives will never harm another family again.

“If that can bring some closure to individuals in the community, then we are happy for that,” Morrow said.

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