Coroners released the names of the eight victims of the FedEx warehouse shooting late Friday, a little less than 24 hours after the latest mass shooting to rock the U.S.
Four of them were members of Indianapolis’ Sikh community. The attack was another blow to the Asian American community a month after six people of Asian descent were killed in a mass shooting in the Atlanta area and amid ongoing attacks against Asian Americans during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Marion County Coroner’s Office identified the dead as Matthew R. Alexander, 32; Samaria Blackwell, 19; Amarjeet Johal, 66; Jaswinder Kaur, 64; Jaswinder Singh, 68; Amarjit Sekhon, 48; Karli Smith, 19; and John Weisert, 74.
The FBI says last year it questioned the man who fatally shot eight people at a FedEx warehouse facility in Indianapolis, The Associated Press reported.
Paul Keenan, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Indianapolis field office, said Friday that agents questioned 19-year-old Brandon Scott Hole after his mother called police to say her son might commit “suicide by cop,” the AP reported.
Keenan said agents questioned Hole based on items found in his bedroom. He did not elaborate on what those items were. No crime was identified and the FBI said it did not identify Hole as espousing a racially motivated ideology, the AP reported.
Hole recently was fired from FedEx, according to reporter Angela Ganote, who cited family and friends of the shooting suspect.
FedEx spokesperson Bonny Harrison confirmed that Hole was a former employee.
Hole used a rifle of uncertain make and model, Brooke Martin of WISH-TV reported.
Five gunshot victims were rushed to various hospitals throughout the area, and one of the injured was in critical condition, said Indianapolis police spokesperson Genae Cook, who held a news conference Friday morning before daylight.
The death toll of eight did not include the shooter.
Reports said authorities were previously warned by one of the suspect’s family members of his potential for violence, although there was not enough evidence at the time to make an arrest or keep him on the radar.
One witness at the scene said he took cover after seeing a man firing a submachine gun or an automatic rifle.
At a news conference later in the morning, authorities revealed that the gunman arrived at the building, got out of his car and immediately began shooting randomly in the parking lot. From there he entered the building and resumed firing.
Police said the shooting lasted one to two minutes because the suspect “didn’t get very far” into the facility, according to reporter Steve Lookner.
After the shooting stopped, four victims lay dead outside the facility and four more were found slain inside, along with the shooter who turned the gun on himself shortly before police arrived, officials said.
The wounded were expected to survive, officials said at the morning news conference.
“This is a sight that no one should see,” Cook told reporters.
As of 1 p.m., investigators were still processing the scene more than 12 hours after police first received reports of shots fired. A search warrant was reportedly being executed at a home in the area.
The shooting was not precipitated by an argument or disturbance, according to CNN’s John Berman.
Law enforcement sources said there is no indication of terrorism being linked to the shooting. Investigators are trying to determine whether this was an act of workplace violence, according to reporter Josh Margolin.
Investigators were examining the building’s surveillance footage to shed light on how the shooting unfolded.
Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett released a statement after the shooting.
“As law enforcement works to learn more about this tragedy, our prayers are with the families of those whose lives were cut short,” Hogsett said.
FedEx issued a statement in which it expressed shock and sadness for the loss of team members.
The FBI was assisting local police with the investigation, according to reporter Angela Brauer.
“We’re still trying to ascertain the exact reason and cause for this incident,” Cook said.
Police officers arrived at the facility shortly after 11 p.m. Thursday just as the gunfire had ended, she said. Inside they found “multiple people with injuries consistent with gunshot wounds.”
Police had the building under their control by 2:45 a.m., and the public was not believed to be in danger.
More than 100 worried family members gathered at a nearby Holiday Inn Express for the latest word on their loved ones, reports said.
FedEx employees are not allowed to use cellphones on the floor of the facilities, likely meaning no one was in contact with those inside, according to reports.
The warehouse where the shooting happened is on the southwest side of Indianapolis, near the airport, where law enforcement had blocked highway access as the investigation got underway.
A witness who spoke to local news station WRTV said he heard as many as 10 shots after managing to escape the scene at the end of his shift.
“This made me stand up and actually look out the entrance door, and I saw a man with a submachine gun of some sort, an automatic rifle, and he was firing in the open,” Jeremiah Miller told WRTV. “I immediately ducked down and got scared and my friend’s mother, she came in and told us to get inside the car.”
Thursday night’s tragedy marked the third mass shooting in Indianapolis this year. On Jan. 24, six people including an unborn baby were killed in a shooting at a house on the city’s northeast side. A teenager has been charged in that crime. Separately, a man is accused of killing three adults and a child before abducting his daughter during an argument at a home in March.
The FedEx shooting is also the latest in an overall deadly wave of bloodshed across the country this year.
A shooting spree at several metro Atlanta spas on March 16 left eight dead, including six Asian women.
Days later, on March 22, another mass shooting at a Boulder, Colorado, grocery store killed 10 people, including a police officer.
On March 31, four people including a child were killed and two wounded in a shooting at an office complex in Orange, California.
Just last week, six people, including two children, were killed in a mass shooting at a home in Rock Hill, South Carolina.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
