People Confuse Louisville, Kentucky, With Louisville, Colorado, After Deadly Mass Shooting

A deadly mass shooting reported in Louisville, Kentucky, on Monday, April 6, prompted residents of  Louisville, Colorado, to do a Twitter double take after reports from local media outlets and politicians appeared online saying the massacre happened in "downtown Louisville" — with no explanation of which of the dozen cities in the country with that name was the site of the shooting.

"Police are reporting 'multiple casualties' as they respond to a shooting in a bank building in downtown Louisville," tweeted FOX 31 Denver. The post sparked multiple replies from concerned users who thought it was misleading. 

"KENTUCKY! Who in the hell tweeted this? Moron," said @Tboneburnette11.

"Might want to change the headline to Louisville, KY," wrote @ajuchem.

"Specify that it’s Kentucky, not Louisville CO total local news fail," added @caci0001.

The shooting at a bank in Louisville, Kentucky, left at least four people dead and nine others injured, with police identifying the shooter as a bank employee, according to the Louisville Courier Journal. Authorities say he livestreamed the attack and eventually got into a shootout with officers, which led to his death. 

The incident happened around 8:30 a.m. Kentucky time and wound up sparking countless posts on Twitter and other social media apps, with many people specifying only that it was going down in Louisville or "downtown Louisville."

"When will enough be enough. Saddened to hear of four lives taken and multiple others injured by senseless gun violence in Louisville," tweeted Colorado District 6 Representative Jason Crow. "Our families shouldn’t have to fear going to the bank."

In response to Crow's tweet, New York Times best-selling author and anthropologist Scott Carney asked, "Colorado?" To which another Twitter user replied, "Kentucky, and I had to check too. Normally I’d never think Colorado first for Louisville…but when it’s a Colorado rep making the comment…"

While most of the vague social media reports and erroneous statements remained up through the day, several people chose to scrub their posts, including Jeana Gondek, co-host of Colorado's KOA morning news program. That was after the radio station corrected her: "That's the Kentucky Louisville, not Colorado's." 

Gondek offered a subsequent post explaining the confusion. "#UPDATE: As a clarification, this is in Louisville Kentucky, from the Louisville Metro Police Department," she tweeted. 

Despite the online uncertainty, both the Boulder County Sheriff's Office and Louisville Police Department in Colorado did not receive calls related to the Kentucky shooting or confusion surrounding it. But they say they can see how it could happen.

"When people look it up on Google or social media, they typically just type in 'Louisville,' and information about Louisville, Kentucky, or the Louisville Metro Police Department is the first thing that comes up," says a police records official in Louisville, Colorado. "A lot of times people will even Google the police department to get just the phone number, and don't look to see which Louisville they're actually calling. We are the Louisville Police Department, they are Louisville Metro." 

Social media users were also quick to point out that there's a difference in how the names of the two cities are pronounced as well. 

"It's not like they're pronounced the same," tweeted @taylordtech. "Its Looi-ville, KY and Louis-ville, CO. Just like its muri-ville and not Mary-ville. Or Lafayette being pronounced la-fayet (I still say the last one at least half the time)."

And so Colorado dodged a bullet. This time.