FedEx gunman known to authorities
Man who killed 8 people at work site was interviewed by FBI in 2020
INDIANAPOLIS — FBI agents last year interviewed the gunman who fatally shot eight people Thursday night at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis, the bureau said Friday, as investigators searched the home of the 19-year-old former FedEx employee.
Coroners began the slow process of identifying the victims as family members spent hours agonizing over word of their loved ones. The slayings late Thursday night marked the latest in a string of recent mass shootings to rock the U.S.
The shooter was identified as Brandon Scott Hole of Indianapolis, Deputy Police Chief Craig McCartt said at a news conference. Investigators searched a home in Indianapolis associated with Hole and seized evidence, including desktop computers and other electronic media, McCartt said.
Paul Keenan, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Indianapolis field office, said Friday that agents questioned Hole last year after his mother called police to say her son might commit “suicide by cop.” He said the FBI was called after items were found in Hole’s bedroom, but he did say what they were. He said agents found no evidence of a crime, and they did not identify Hole as espousing a racially motivated ideology.
McCartt said Hole was a former employee of FedEx and last worked for the company in 2020.
He said he did not know why Hole left the job or if he had ties to the workers in the facility. He said police have not yet uncovered a motive for the shooting but added that law enforcement officers seized a gun from Hole last year.
McCartt also said authorities are still identifying the victims and that not all of the victims’ families had been notified by Friday evening.
Hole started randomly shooting at people in the parking lot, and then went into the building and continued shooting Thursday night, McCartt said. He said the shooter apparently killed himself shortly before police entered the building.
“There was no confrontation with anyone that was there,” he said. “There was no disturbance, there was no argument. He just appeared to randomly start shooting.”
McCartt said four people were killed outside the building and another four inside. Several people were wounded, including five who were taken to the hospital. McCartt said the slayings took place in a matter of minutes.
Officials with the coroner’s office began identifying victims Friday afternoon, a process they said would take several hours.
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 “deeply saddened to learn” that Sikh community members were among the wounded and killed.
The coalition, which identifies itself as the largest Sikh civil rights organization in the U.S., said it expected authorities to “conduct a full investigation — including the possibility of bias as a factor.” The coalition’s executive director, Satjeet Kaur, noted that more than 8,000 Sikh Americans live in Indiana.
The agonizing wait by the workers’ families was exacerbated by the fact that most employees aren’t allowed to carry cellphones inside the FedEx building, making contact with them difficult.
“When you see notifications on your phone, but you’re not getting a text back from your kid and you’re not getting information and you still don’t know where they are … what are you supposed to do?” Mindy Carson said early Friday, fighting back tears.
Carson later said she had heard from her daughter Jessica, who works in the facility, and that Jessica was OK. Carson was going to meet her.
FedEx Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Frederick Smith called the shooting a “senseless act of violence.”
“This is a devastating day, and words are hard to describe the emotions we all feel,” he wrote in an email to employees.
Information for this article was contributed by Michael Balsamo and Eric Tucker of The Associated Press. Smith is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.