INDIANAPOLIS – The former employee who shot dead eight people at a FedEx plant in Indianapolis has legally purchased the two guns used in the attack, despite red flag laws designed to prevent such purchases, police said. said.
A trail of the two guns found by investigators at the scene revealed that Indianapolis suspect Brandon Scott Hole, 19, legally purchased the guns in July and September, Indianapolis police officials said Saturday. said.
Police did not say where Hole bought the assault rifles, but said he saw him use both rifles during the shooting.
Details about the manufacture, model and caliber of the weapons will first be revealed, said Genae Cook, a spokesman for the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.
Authorities said Hole shot dead eight people, four of them from the Sikh community in the city, late Thursday before killing himself.
According to the FBI, agents questioned Hole last year after his mother called police to say her son could commit suicide. ‘According to a police report, officers confiscated a pump gun from Hole’s home after responding to the call. Police said the gun was never returned to him.
Republican Sen. Todd Young on Sunday called for more mental health services at all levels of government.
‘We know we have a Hoosier family who have called for help, knowing they have a child in need of mental health treatment. We know we have members of our law enforcement community who have responded to the call for help for some time. And we know it was not enough in the end, ”he told The Associated Press before addressing a gathering at the Gurdwara Sikh Satsang, a Sikh house of worship on the east side of Indianapolis.
Young questioned whether Indiana’s red flag laws were “actually enforced” to prevent the shooting.
Mark Bode, a spokesman for Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett, said Sunday his office “is also keeping a close eye on the findings of the ongoing investigation and what interruptions in the red flag’s processes may have come into play.”
Indiana has a “red flag law” that allows police or courts to seize people who show warning signs of violence since 2005. It was one of the first states to pass such a law after an Indianapolis police officer was killed by a man whose weapons had to be returned despite hospitalization months earlier for an emergency mental health emergency.
The law is intended to prevent people from buying or possessing a firearm if they are found by a judge to be a “threatening risk” to themselves or others.
Authorities two weeks after seizing someone’s weapon to argue in court that the person should not be allowed to own a gun. Officials did not say whether Hole’s case was brought before a judge. Michael Leffler, a spokesman for the Marion County prosecutor’s office, said Sunday the office is investigating the case.
If Hole had a court hearing and gained the upper hand, the state law indicates that the gun would have been returned to him. However, if a judge finds him dangerous or incompetent, he should be banned from buying another gun.
Gaganpal S. Dhaliwal, a member of the Sikh community who also spoke at the rally on Sunday, added that victims’ families want to see a ‘common sense law’ and a stricter policy on hate crime.
“A gun was seized on this shooter, but he was still able to get his hands on guns,” Dhaliwal said. “We have to make sure guns don’t end up in the wrong hands.”
Dhaliwal also asked for about two dozen quick visas from the U.S. and Indian governments to allow family members to be buried for funeral services that will take place in the next two weeks.
Hole was a former employee at the FedEx plant who left his job last year, police said. Authorities have not yet announced a possible motive for the attack.
Hole’s family said in a statement they were “so sorry for the pain and hurt” that his actions caused.
The attack was a further blow to the Asian American community a month after authorities said six people of Asian descent were killed by a gunman in the Atlanta area amid ongoing attacks on Asian Americans during the coronavirus -pandemic.
About 90% of the workers in the FedEx warehouse near Indianapolis International Airport are members of the local Sikh community, police said.
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 seven.
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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.