The shooter was identified as Brandon Scott Hole, 19, of Indianapolis, Deputy Police Chief Craig McCartt told a news conference. Investigators searched a home in Indianapolis linked to Hole and seized evidence, including computers and other electronic media, McCartt said.
Hole started shooting randomly at people in the parking lot of the FedEx plant late Thursday, killing four people before entering the building, and fatally shooting four more people and then aiming the gun at himself, McCartt said. He said he did not know if Hole legally owned the weapon.
“There was no confrontation with anyone who was there,” he said. ‘There was no disturbance, and there was no argument. He just looked like he started shooting randomly. ‘
McCartt said the killing took place within minutes and that there were at least 100 people in the facility at the time. Many changed shifts, or were at a dinner party, he said. Several people were injured, including five who were taken to hospital.
“You deserve so much better than that,” a man who identified himself as Johal’s grandson tweeted Friday night. According to the grandson, Johal planned to work a double shift on Thursday so she could take pictures on Friday, which would not give his full name but identify himself as ‘Komal’ on his Twitter page. Johal later decided to grab her check and go home, and still had the check in her hand when police found her, Komal said.
“(What) a hard and cruel world we live in,” he added.
Smith, the youngest of the victims, was last in contact with her family shortly before 11pm on Thursday, family members said in social reports late Friday. Dominique Troutman, Smith’s sister, waited hours at the Holiday Inn for an update on her sister. ‘Words can not even explain how I feel. … I was so hurt, ”Troutman said in a Facebook post on Friday night.
Weiseret has worked as a bag handler at FedEx for four years, his wife, Carol, told WISH-TV. The couple has been married for almost 50 years.
President Joe Biden said he was informed about the shooting and that he called gun violence in the US an ‘epidemic’
“Too many Americans die every day from gun violence. It stains our character and pierces the soul of our nation, “he said in a statement. He later tweeted: “We can, and must, do more to reduce gun violence and save lives.”
A FedEx employee said he was working in the building Thursday night when he quickly heard multiple shots.
“I see a man come out with a gun in his hand and he starts shooting and he shouts stuff I could not understand,” Levi Miller told WTHR-TV. “What I finally did was descend to make sure he did not see me, because I thought he would see me and he would shoot me.”
Paul Keenan, special agent in charge of the FBI’s field office in Indianapolis, said on Friday that agents questioned Hole last year after his mother called police to say her son would commit ‘suicide by police officer’. He said the FBI was called after items were found in Hole’s bedroom, but he did not elaborate on what they were. He said agents found no evidence of a crime and that they did not view Hole as a race-driven ideology. A police report obtained by The Associated Press shows officers seized a pump gun from Hole’s home after responding to the mother’s call. Keenan said the gun was never returned.
McCartt said Hole was a former FedEx employee and last worked for the company for 2020. The deputy police chief said he did not know why Hole left the job and whether he had ties to the workers in the facility. He said police had not yet discovered any motive for the shooting.
Police Chief Randal Taylor noted that a “significant” number of employees at the FedEx facility are members of the Sikh community, and the Sikh coalition later issued a statement saying it was “sad to confirm” that at least four of the casualties are community members. .
The coalition, which identifies itself as the largest Sikh civil rights organization in the US, said in the statement that it expects authorities to conduct a full investigation – including the possibility of prejudice as a factor. ‘
Varun Nikore, executive director of the AAPI Victory Alliance, a national advocacy group for Asians and Americans in the Pacific, said in a statement that the shooting incident ‘is another senseless massacre that has become a daily occurrence in this country. ‘.
Nikore noted that gun violence in the US is a reflection of all the spineless politicians viewed after the gun lobby. ‘
FedEx chairman and CEO Frederick Smith called the shooting a “senseless act of violence”.
“It’s a devastating day, and words are hard to describe the emotions we all feel,” he wrote in an email to employees.
The killings were the latest in a series of recent mass shootings across the country and the third mass shooting this year in Indianapolis. Five people, including a pregnant woman, were shot dead in the city in January and a man is accused of killing three adults and a child before kidnapping his daughter during a quarrel in a house in March. In other states, massacres in the Atlanta area were fatally shot last month, and ten were shot dead in gunfire at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado.
Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett said the community should guard against resignation and “the assumption that it should be just that and that we might as well get used to it.” ‘