Indianapolis Sikhs mourn 4 deaths in FedEx shooting
INDIANAPOLIS — Amarjit Sekhon, a 48-year-old mother of two sons, was the breadwinner of her family and one of many members of Indianapolis’ tightknit Sikh community employed at a FedEx warehouse on the city’s southwest side.
Her death Thursday night in a mass shooting that also claimed the lives of seven other FedEx employees — four of them Sikhs — has left that community stunned and in mourning, her brother-in-law, Kuldip Sekhon, said Saturday.
He said his sister-in-law began working at the FedEx facility in November after previously working at a bakery, and was a dedicated worker whose husband is disabled.
“She was a workaholic, she always was working, working,” he said. “She would never sit still … the other day she had the [covid-19] shot and she was really sick, but she still went to work.”
In addition to Sekhon, the Marion County coroner’s office identified the dead late Friday as: Matthew Alexander, 32; Samaria Blackwell, 19; Amarjeet Johal, 66; Jasvinder Kaur, 50; Jaswinder Singh, 68; Karli Smith, 19; and John Weisert, 74.
Police said Brandon Scott Hole, 19, apparently began firing randomly at people in the parking lot of the FedEx facility, killing four, before entering the building, fatally shooting four more people and then turning the gun on himself. Authorities have not publicly speculated on a motive.
Deputy Police Chief Craig 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.
About 90% of the workers at the FedEx warehouse near Indianapolis International Airport are members of the local Sikh community, city Police Chief Randal Taylor said Friday.
Kuldip Sekhon said his family lost another relative in the shooting — Kaur, who was his son’s mother-in-law.
Komal Chohan, who said Amarjeet Johal was her grandmother, said in a statement issued by the Sikh Coalition that her family members, including several who work at the FedEx warehouse, are “traumatized” by the killings.
“My nani, my family, and our families should not feel unsafe at work, at their place of worship, or anywhere. Enough is enough — our community has been through enough trauma,” she said.
Samaria Blackwell of Indianapolis was a soccer and basketball player who last year graduated from Indy Genesis, a Christian competitive sports organization for home-schooled students. Her parents said Saturday in a statement that she was an outgoing “people person” — the youngest of four children who will be missed “immensely” by them and her dog, Jasper.
“As an intelligent, straight A student, Samaria could have done anything she chose to put her mind to, and because she loved helping people, she dreamed of becoming a police officer. Although that dream has been cut short, we believe that right now she is rejoicing in heaven with her Savior,” they said.
There are between 8,000 and 10,000 Sikh Americans in Indiana, according to the coalition. Members of the religion, which began in India in the 15th century, began settling in Indiana more than 50 years ago and opened their first house of worship, known as a gurdwara, in 1999. The coalition says about 500,000 Sikhs live in the U.S.
The attack was another blow to the Asian American community a month after six people of Asian descent were killed in a shooting in the Atlanta area as attacks against Asian Americans have risen during the coronavirus pandemic.
The shooting took place in the week Sikhs are celebrating Vaisakhi, a major holiday festival that among other things marks the date Sikhism was born as a collective faith.
Paul Keenan, 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 that her son might commit “suicide by cop.”
Information for this article was contributed by Michael Balsamo, Eric Tucker, Pat Eaton-Robb and Gary Fields 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.