Eight killed in US shooting after gunman fired ‘randomly’ at Fedex facility
EIGHT people have been killed and seven injured in a shooting at a Fedex facility in the US city of Indianapolis.
The gunman began shooting “randomly” almost immediately after exiting his car, according to police.
He killed himself minutes before police arrived, officials say. They have not confirmed the identities of the victims or the gunman.
The attack began around 11pm local time on Thursday (4am BST yesterday) in Indianapolis, Indiana – the state capital and its largest city.
In a news conference yesterday, city officials said no motive had been established yet, and noted one may never be determined.
“We’ll never really know all the ins and outs of why this occurred, but we’ll try our best,” admitted police chief Randal Taylor.
Craig Mccartt, the deputy chief of criminal investigations, said the gunman began firing as soon as he arrived at the building.
“This suspect came to the facility and when he came there, he got out of his car and pretty quickly started some random shooting outside the facility,” he said.
EIGHT people have been shot dead by a gunman at a Fedex facility in the US city of Indianapolis, before the shooter killed himself, police said.
Several other people were injured in the incident near Indianapolis International Airport, and four were taken to hospital, police spokeswoman Genae Cook said.
One person is said to be critically ill. The gunman was not immediately identified, and investigators are in the process of conducting interviews and gathering information.
Ms Cook said it is too early to tell whether the shooter was an employee at the facility.
Police were called to reports of gunfire just after 11pm on Thursday, and officers observed an active shooting scene, Ms Cook said. The gunman later killed himself.
Fedex earlier said it was cooperating with authorities and working to get more information, adding: “We are aware of the tragic shooting at our Fedex Ground facility near the Indianapolis airport. Safety is our top priority, and our thoughts are with all those who are affected.”
Family members gathered at a local hotel to await word on loved ones. Some said employees are not allowed to have their phones with them while working shifts at the facility, making it difficult to contact them, WTHR-TV reported.
Live video from news outlets at the scene showed crime-scene tape in the car park outside the facility.
A witness who said he works at the facility told WISH-TV that he saw a man with a gun after hearing several gunshots.
Jeremiah Miller said: “I saw a man with a submachine gun of some sort, an automatic rifle, and he was firing in the open.”
Another man told WTTV that his niece was sitting in her car in the driver’s seat when gunfire erupted.
“She got shot on her left arm,” said Parminder Singh. “She’s fine – she’s in the hospital now.”
He added that his niece did not know the shooter.
The shooting was the latest in a string of mass shootings across the US in recent months.
Eight people were fatally shot at massage businesses in Atlanta, and 10 died at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, last month.
This was at least the third mass shooting this year in Indianapolis.
Five people, including a pregnant woman, were shot and killed in
January, and a man was accused of killing three adults and a child before abducting his daughter during an argument at a home in March.
Meanwhile, disturbing body-camera footage of a 13-year-old boy being shot dead by police in Chicago shows the youth appearing to drop a handgun and raising his hands less than a second before an officer kills him.
A still frame taken from Officer Eric Stillman’s body-cam footage shows that Adam Toledo was not holding anything and had his hands up when Officer Stillman shot him once in the chest at around 3am on March 29.
Police, who were responding to reports of shots fired in the area, say the boy had a handgun on him before the shooting.
Officer Stillman’s footage shows him shining a light on a handgun on the ground near Adam Toledo after he shot him.
The release of the footage and other investigation materials come at a sensitive time, with the ongoing trial in Minneapolis of former police officer Derek Chauvin over the killing of George Floyd and the recent police killing of another black man, Daunte Wright, in one of the city’s suburbs.
Before the Civilian Office of Police Accountability posted the material on its website, Mayor Lori Lightfoot called on the public to keep the peace, while some businesses boarded up their windows in the expectation that there could be unrest.
Small groups of protesters gathered at a police station and marched on Thursday night, but there were few signs of widespread demonstrations in the city.
“We live in a city that is traumatised by a long history of police violence and misconduct,” Ms Lightfoot said.
“So, while we don’t have enough information to be the judge and jury of this particular situation, it is certainly understandable why so many of our residents are feeling that all-too-familiar surge of outrage and pain.
“It is even clearer that trust between our community and law enforcement is far from healed and remains badly broken.”
Nineteen seconds elapsed from when Officer Stillman got out of his squad car to when he shot Adam Toledo.
The 34-year-old white officer’s bodycam footage shows him chasing Adam Toledo on foot down an alley for several seconds. As the boy slows down,
Officer Stillman calls for him to show his hands.
The teenager then turns toward the camera, Officer Stillman shouts: “Drop it!” Midway between repeating that command, he opens fire and the teenager falls down.
While approaching the wounded boy, Officer Stillman radios for an ambulance. He can be heard imploring Adam to “stay awake” and, as other officers arrive, an officer says he cannot feel a heartbeat and begins administering CPR.
In a lengthy email, Officer Stillman’s lawyer Tim Grace said the 13-year-old left the officer no choice but to shoot.
“The juvenile offender had the gun in his right hand... looked at the officer which could be interpreted as attempting to acquire a target and began to turn to face the officer attempting to swing the gun in his direction,” Mr Grace wrote.
“At this point the officer was faced with a life-threatening and deadly force situation. All prior attempts to de-escalate and gain compliance with all of the officer’s lawful orders had failed.”
Adeena Weiss-ortiz, an attorney for Toledo’s family, said the footage and other videos “speak for themselves”.
She said it is irrelevant whether
Adam was holding a gun before he turned toward the officer.
“If he had a gun, he tossed it,” she said. “The officer said: ‘Show me your hands.’ He complied. He turned around.”
The Chicago Police Department typically does not release the names of officers involved in such shootings this early on in an investigation, but Officer Stillman’s name, age and race – he is 34 and white – were listed in the investigation reports released on Thursday.
Trust between our community and law enforcement is far from healed and remains badly broken