CARNAGE AT FEDEX FACILITY
8 gunned down at Ind. plant
A baby-faced former FedEx worker opened fire at an Indianapolis facility — killing eight people and injuring several others before turning the gun on himself, officials said Friday.
Authorities identified the shooter as Brandon Scott Hole, 19, a local man who last worked for FedEx in 2020 and had previous run-ins with police during a suicidal episode.
But it remained unclear why Hole opened fire with a rifle at the plant near the Indianapolis International Airport at around 11 p.m. Thursday.
“We’ve recently identified him, so now, the work really begins, trying to establish and see if we can figure out some sort of motive in this but we don’t have that right now,” Deputy Police Chief Craig McCartt said at a press conference Friday afternoon.
Hole had two prior arrests, in 2020 and in 2013. According to a police report, he was arrested on March 3, 2020, when police “seized shotgun from dangerous person,” local station WTHR-TV reported.
“Behavioral health unit initiated immediate detention on male reported to have voiced suicidal ideation,” according to the police report.
Hole had bought the shotgun shortly before he was arrested and taken to the hospital after indicating he might be suicidal, the report says.
Hole’s mother called police in 2020 saying she was worried he might try to commit suicide by cop, said Paul Keenan, special agent in charge at the FBI’s Indianapolis field office.
A search of Hole’s bedroom after his 2020 arrest turned up some items that prompted federal agents to question him, Keenan said without elaborating on what was found. But the FBI determined that no crime had been committed and that Hole had not been talking about any racially motivated ideology. He was not given back the shotgun, authorities said.
Federal agents on Friday were seen hauling evidence including a large box and computer equipment from Hole’s home on the east side of Indianapolis, 13News reported.
Indianapolis Police Chief Randal Taylor noted that a “significant” number of employees at the FedEx facility are members of the Sikh community, although it is unclear if that had anything to do with the shooting.
“There were at least 100 people in the facility at the time of the incident . . . many were changing shifts and were on their dinner breaks,” McCartt said.
The victims have not yet been identified. “Crime Lab is still here, they are finishing processing the scene,” McCartt said. “They’re working closely with the coroner’s office. We’re to the point now where we’re identifying victims, making notifications to the family, and then hopefully we’ll wrap up the processing of this crime scene here very shortly.”
President Biden on Friday condemned the deadly rampage as “the latest in a string of tragedies” that have become all “too normal” in the United States. Repeating his call for more weapons control legislation, Biden said, “Gun violence is an epidemic in America. But we should not accept it. We must act.”