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FBI says
it
interviewed
FedEx
mass
shooter
last
year
By
CASEY
SMITH
and
RICK
CALLAHAN
apnews.com
INDIANAPOLIS
- The
former
employee
who shot
and
killed
eight
people
at a
FedEx
facility
in
Indianapolis
was
interviewed
by FBI
agents
last
year,
after
his
mother
called
police
to say
that her
son
might
commit
“suicide
by cop,”
the
bureau
said
Friday.
Coroners
released
the
names of
the
victims
late
Friday,
a little
less
than 24
hours
after
the
latest
mass
shooting
to rock
the U.S.
Four of
them
were
members
of
Indianapolis’
Sikh
community.
The
attack
was
another
blow to
the
Asian
American
community
a month
after
six
people
of Asian
descent
were
killed
in a
mass
shooting
in the
Atlanta
area and
amid
ongoing
attacks
against
Asian
Americans
during
the
coronavirus
pandemic.
The
Marion
County
Coroner’s
office
identified
the dead
as
Matthew
R.
Alexander,
32;
Samaria
Blackwell,
19;
Amarjeet
Johal,
66;
Jaswinder
Kaur,
64;
Jaswinder
Singh,
68;
Amarjit
Sekhon,
48;
Karli
Smith,
19; and
John
Weisert,
74.
The
shooter
was
identified
as
Brandon
Scott
Hole,
19, of
Indianapolis,
Deputy
Police
Chief
Craig
McCartt
told a
news
conference.
Investigators
searched
a home
in
Indianapolis
associated
with
Hole and
seized
evidence,
including
desktop
computers
and
other
electronic
media,
McCartt
said.
Hole
began
firing
randomly
at
people
in the
parking
lot of
the
FedEx
facility
late
Thursday,
killing
four,
before
entering
the
building,
fatally
shooting
four
more
people
and then
turning
the gun
on
himself,
McCartt
said. He
said he
did not
know if
Hole
owned
the gun
legally.
“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 the
slayings
took
place in
a matter
of
minutes,
and that
there
were at
least
100
people
in the
facility
at the
time.
Many
were
changing
shifts
or were
on their
dinner
break,
he said.
Several
people
were
wounded,
including
five who
were
taken to
the
hospital.
“You
deserved
so much
better
than
this,” a
man who
identified
himself
as the
grandson
of Johal
tweeted
Friday
evening.
Johal
had
planned
to work
a double
shift
Thursday
so she
could
take
Friday
off,
according
to the
grandson,
who
would
not give
his full
name but
identifies
himself
as
“Komal”
on his
Twitter
page.
Johal
later
decided
to grab
her
check
and go
home,
and
still
had the
check in
her hand
when
police
found
her,
Komal
said.
“(What)
a harsh
and
cruel
world we
live
in,” he
added.
Smith,
the
youngest
of the
victims,
was last
in
contact
with her
family
shortly
before
11 p.m.
Thursday,
family
members
said in
social
media
posts
late
Friday.
Dominique
Troutman,
Smith’s
sister,
waited
hours at
the
Holiday
Inn for
an
update
on her
sister.
“Words
can’t
even
explain
how I
feel.
... I’m
so
hurt,”
Troutman
said in
a
Facebook
post
Friday
night.
Weisert
had been
working
as a bag
handler
at FedEx
for four
years,
his
wife,
Carol,
told
WISH-TV.
The
couple
was
married
nearly
50
years.
President
Joe
Biden
said he
had been
briefed
on the
shooting
and
called
gun
violence
“an
epidemic”
in the
U.S.
“Too
many
Americans
are
dying
every
single
day from
gun
violence.
It
stains
our
character
and
pierces
the very
soul of
our
nation,”
he said
in a
statement.
Later,
he
tweeted,
“We can,
and
must, do
more to
reduce
gun
violence
and save
lives.”
A
FedEx
employee
said he
was
working
inside
the
building
Thursday
night
when he
heard
several
gunshots
in rapid
succession.
“I
see a
man come
out with
a rifle
in his
hand and
he
starts
firing
and he
starts
yelling
stuff
that I
could
not
understand,”
Levi
Miller
told
WTHR-TV.
“What I
ended up
doing
was
ducking
down to
make
sure he
did not
see me
because
I
thought
he would
see me
and he
would
shoot
me.”
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.”
He said
the FBI
was
called
after
items
were
found in
Hole’s
bedroom
but he
did not
elaborate
on what
they
were. He
said
agents
found no
evidence
of a
crime
and that
they did
not
identify
Hole as
espousing
a
racially
motivated
ideology.
A police
report
obtained
by The
Associated
Press
shows
that
officers
seized a
pump-action
shotgun
from
Hole’s
home
after
responding
to the
mother’s
call.
Keenan
said the
gun was
never
returned.
McCartt
said
Hole was
a former
employee
of FedEx
and last
worked
for the
company
in 2020.
The
deputy
police
chief
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.
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
“sad to
confirm”
that at
least
four of
those
killed
were
community
members.
The
coalition,
which
identifies
itself
as the
largest
Sikh
civil
rights
organization
in the
U.S.,
said in
the
statement
that it
expected
authorities
to
“conduct
a full
investigation
—
including
the
possibility
of bias
as a
factor.”
Varun
Nikore,
executive
director
of the
AAPI
Victory
Alliance,
a
national
advocacy
group
for
Asian
Americans
and
Pacific
Islanders,
said in
a
statement
that the
shootings
marked
“yet
another
senseless
massacre
that has
become a
daily
occurrence
in this
country.”
Nikore
remarked
that gun
violence
in the
U.S. “is
reflective
of all
of the
spineless
politicians
who are
beholden
to the
gun
lobby.”
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.
The
killings
marked
the
latest
in a
string
of
recent
mass
shootings
across
the
country
and the
third
mass
shooting
this
year in
Indianapolis.
Five
people,
including
a
pregnant
woman,
were
shot and
killed
in the
city in
January,
and a
man was
accused
of
killing
three
adults
and a
child
before
abducting
his
daughter
during
at
argument
at a
home in
March.
In other
states
last
month,
eight
people
were
fatally
shot at
massage
businesses
in the
Atlanta
area,
and 10
died in
gunfire
at a
supermarket
in
Boulder,
Colorado.
Indianapolis
Mayor
Joe
Hogsett
said the
community
must
guard
against
resignation
and “the
assumption
that
this is
simply
how it
must be
and we
might as
well get
used to
it.”
___
This
story
has been
edited
to
correct
the
spelling
of
several
names.
___
Associated
Press
reporters
Michael
Balsamo
and Eric
Tucker
in
Washington
contributed
to this
report.
Casey
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.
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