FedEx gunman bought rifles after police seized shotgun
Brandon Hole (pic), the 19-year-old man, who the police say fatally shot eight people at a FedEx facility on Thursday night, legally purchased two semiautomatic rifles he used in the attack just a few months after the police seized a shotgun from him, the chief of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department said on Saturday, reported NYT.
In March 2020, the police seized a shotgun from Hole after his mother raised concerns about his mental state, records show. But, Chief Randal Taylor said, the fact that Hole was legally able to make the more recent gun purchases indicated that — despite his mother’s warning and the police seizure of a gun — the authorities had not deemed him subject to Indiana’s socalled red flag law, which bars people from possessing a firearm if they are found by a judge to present a dangerous risk. The revelation came as Indianapolis mourned the deaths of workers at the FedEx facility. The deaths,
and the gunshot wounds sustained by at least seven others during a shift change on a chilly night, jolted a nation where mass killings have become commonplace.
Over 4 of the victims were members of the Sikh community, and the attack renewed the fears among American Sikhs, who have over the years been accosted for wearing turbans and attacked in a house of worship. “The shock wave went through the entire
Sikh community,” said Kanwal Prakash Singh, who has watched the Indianapolisarea Sikh population grow from a handful of individuals to thousands since he arrived in the late 1960s. “Why would a 19-year-old,” he asked, “do that to these innocent people?” The family of Hole, who was said to be a former worker at the facility, released a statement on Saturday that apologised to the victims and said, “We tried to get him the help he needed.” He killed himself after the attack.