INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Amarjit Sekhon, a 48-year-old mother of two, was the breadwinner of her family and one of many members of Indianapolis’ close-knit Sikh community working in a FedEx warehouse in the southwestern city. of the city.
Her death Thursday night in a mass shooting that claimed the lives of seven other FedEx employees – four of them Sikhs – left the community stunned and in mourning, her brother-in-law, Kuldip Sekhon, said on Saturday.
He said his sister-in-law started working at the FedEx plant in November – after previously working at a bakery – and was a dedicated worker whose husband was unfit.
“She was a workaholic, she always worked and worked. “She will never sit still unless she feels really bad,” he said.
In addition to Sekhon, the Marion County coroner’s office identified the deceased late Friday as: Matthew R. Alexander, 32; Samaria Blackwell, 19; Amarjeet Johal, 66; Jasvinder Kaur, 50; Jaswinder Singh, 68; Karli Smith, 19; and John Weiseret, 74.
According to police, Brandon Scott Hole, 19, apparently started shooting randomly at people in the parking lot of the FedEx plant, killing four people before entering the building, fatally shooting four more people and then turning the gun on himself.
It was not clear if Sikhs were targeted in the shooting. Hole’s motives remained unclear on Saturday.
The killings were the latest in a series of recent mass shootings across the country and the third mass shooting this year in Indianapolis.
Deputy Police Chief Craig McCartt said Hole was a former FedEx employee and last worked for the company in 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.
About 90% of the workers at the plant near Indianapolis International Airport are members of the local Sikh community, Indianapolis police chief Randal Taylor said Friday. Many of them live in Hendricks County just west of Indianapolis, and on the south side of the city.
Kuldip Sekhon said his family lost another family member in the shooting – Kaur, who was his son’s mother-in-law. He said both Kaur and Amarjit Sekhon started working at the FedEx plant at the same time last November.
“They were both together for work there” when the shooting took place, he said.
Komal Chohan, who said Amarjeet Johal was her grandmother, said in a statement from the Sikh coalition that her family members, including several who work in the FedEx warehouse, were “traumatized” by the killings.
‘My nani, my family and our families should not feel unsafe at work, in their place of worship or anywhere else. Enough is enough – our community has been through enough trauma, “she said in the statement.
According to the coalition, there are between 8,000 and 10,000 Sikh Americans in Indiana. Members of the religion, which began in India in the 15th century, began to settle in Indiana more than 50 years ago and in 1999 opened their first house of worship, known as a gurdwara.
The attack was another blow to the Asian American community a month after six people of Asian descent were killed during a mass shooting in the Atlanta area and amid ongoing attacks on Asian Americans during the coronavirus pandemic.
The shooting comes the week that Sikhs celebrate Vaisakhi, a major holiday festival that marks, among other things, the date that Sikhism was born as a collective religion.
“Although we do not yet know the motive of the shooter, he targeted a facility known to have heavily populated Sikh employees, and the attack is traumatic for our community as we continue to face senseless violence. , “said Satjeet Kaur, the Sikh. Coalition’s executive director.
According to the coalition, about 500,000 Sikhs live in the US. Many practicing Sikhs are visually distinguished by their religious articles, which include the uncut hair and turban.
The shooting is the deadliest incident of violence in the Sikh community in the US since 2012, when a white supremacist erupted in a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, killing ten people and killing six people. A seventh will die in 2020 from complications due to his injuries. The gunman killed himself during a firefight with police.
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.
Indianapolis police said Friday that Hole opened fire with a gun.
Samaria Blackwell, of Indianapolis, was a soccer and basketball player who graduated from Indy Genesis last year, a Christian competitive sports organization for homeschooling students. Teammates posted on Facebook that Blackwell “always smiles and cracks jokes. She was so loving, stupid, encouraging and supportive. Family friends organized a fundraiser for the Blackwell family to help with funeral expenses.
Several dozen people gathered at Olivet Missionary Baptist Church on the west side of the city on Saturday afternoon to mourn and call to action.
“The system failed our state the other night,” said Cathy Weinmann, a Moms Demand Action volunteer. “That young man would never have had access to a gun … we would not accept it, and we demand better than that for our community.”
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Associated Press reporters Michael Balsamo and Eric Tucker in Washington and Pat Eaton-Robb in Connecticut contributed to this report. Casey Smith is a corps member for the Associated Press / Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a non-profit national service program that puts journalists in local newsrooms to report on national issues.