LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Governors always get the call when there's been a mass shooting in their state. They shows up at the scene, speak with first responders, console victims' families and survivors, and try their best to present a face of calm leadership in communities shattered by gun violence.

On April 10, 2023, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear got that call. Sitting in Frankfort, he learned there'd just been a mass shooting 50 miles away in Louisville, and the devastation was personal.

"Some days it feels like it was 10 years ago," Beshear said in an interview last month. "Some days, it feels like it was 10 minutes ago."

Beshear knew just about everyone at Old National Bank, from the greeter to the CEO. He ran his campaign for Kentucky attorney general at the bank's location on Main Street in downtown Louisville.

"I had been a client back when I was a lawyer and it was filled with a bunch of really good friends of mine," Beshear said, fighting back tears.

On April 10, he first learned there was a mass shooting in Louisville. Then he learned it was downtown. Then, finally, he learned what exactly had happened.

"At the time, when the news that it was at the bank came through, I jumped in a car, and we were headed there," he said.

A 25-year-old former employee of the bank, Connor Sturgeon, was identified as the suspect responsible for the mass shooting. Five employees were gunned down and killed. Eight others, including two LMPD officers, were shot and hurt.

The five bank employees killed in the shooting were Joshua Barrick, 40, a senior vice president; Deana Eckert, 57, an executive administrative officer; Tommy Elliott, 63, also a senior vice president; Juliana Farmer, 45, a loan analyst; and Jim Tutt Jr., 64, a commercial real estate market executive.

Beshear kept trying to reach his friends at the bank on the way to Louisville to no avail. 

"I still remember walking into the command center and looking at a friend across the room who had been inside," Beshear said. "And he just shook his head, and I knew."

'Life is short'

What Beshear realized in that moment in the command center is that he had lost one of his best friends, Elliott, the bank's senior vice president, who gave him advice on everything from politics to being a dad.

"One of the worst moments of my life is calling Tommy's wife, Marianne, and telling her that he'd passed away," Beshear said. "But one of the best moments of my life was seeing my friend Darren in the ER and knowing that he was alive and then having my friend Dennis walk in and knowing that he was alive."

Beshear had a history from the Preston Pointe building. He'd spent a lot of time inside, even sitting in the same chairs as the victims on April 10.

Old National Bank Memorial

"I'd been in that conference room, everything from business deals when I was in private practice to stopping in for people's birthday parties," he said.

And while Beshear says he understands the emotions of those who got heated and political at the vigil for the victims, he said he wanted to focus on the victims and the shooter.

"I don't have any blame that day other than the shooter himself," he said. "No matter what you're going through, this is not OK. It can't be explained away. It is murder. It is absolutely murder.

"It's a long way to go from 'I'm having a mental health crisis' to 'I'm gonna murder as many people as I can. ... It's just wrong and it's just evil."

There are things in the legislature, Beshear said, that could be done. In fact, Sens. Whitney Westerfield, R-Fruit Hill, and David Yates, D-Louisville, filed a bill in Frankfort in January that would allow police to seek court orders to temporarily remove firearms from people thought to pose an "immediate and present danger" of hurting themselves or others. They acknowledged in a news conference from Frankfort that their "crisis aversion and rights retention" effort faces a challenging path in the Republican-dominated General Assembly, where some lawmakers have shown resistance to any actual or perceived gun control actions.

It was introduced in a Senate committee March 1 but hasn't had a hearing since it was introduced Jan. 25.

"We should see a couple of changes that are out there that both protect everybody's 2nd Amendment ... but at the same time can protect some of these (mass shootings) from happening," Beshear said. "We really ought to talk about a red flag law because, while a lot of people try to claim it's this or that, it's (a law in) Florida. This isn't a Democrat or Republican thing.

"... We trust courts with the custody of children. Certainly we can trust them with protecting our rights but also preventing a murder."

The tragedy that changed so many lives in Louisville changed the state's leader, too, leaving him with a void, without a friend he would often rely on.

"I'm reminded almost daily how much Tommy did for me," he said. "And, hopefully, I can be there for his family the same or a similar way."

A year removed from a painful and unimaginable tragedy, Beshear sees each day more clearly.

"Life is short," he said. "Our job is to be kind to each other and do good things. And it doesn't have to be more complicated than that."

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