The Guardian
Police said they were working to identify the victims of the attack at a FedEx facility on Thursday night Police stand near a sign at the FedEx facility where multiple people were shot and killed the previous night in Indianapolis, on 16 April. Photograph: Michael Conroy/AP The FBI and authorities were investigating possible motives on Friday after a gunman killed eight people and injured several more at a FedEx warehouse in Indianapolis, in the latest of a string of mass shootings to rock the US. Authorities identified the shooter as a young man in his 20s. They said they could not yet say why he opened fire with a rifle late Thursday night at a FedEx processing center near the Indianapolis airport. Randal Taylor, the police chief, also noted that a “significant” number of employees at the facility are members of the Sikh community. Taylor spoke from a hotel where family members are awaiting word on their loved ones. He said he will stay with the families until they get more information. The gunman killed himself almost immediately after the shooting and before officers arrived, police said. Special agent Paul Keenan of the FBI in Indianapolis said earlier on Friday that “it would be premature to speculate” on the suspect’s motivation for the shooting. An Indianapolis home connected with the shooting was being searched on Friday morning, police said. Authorities were reportedly warned about the suspect’s potential for violence in the past, according to CNN. Police did not confirm whether the suspect was known to federal and local authorities prior to the attack. “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 of the facility,” said Craig McCartt, the deputy chief of criminal investigations for Indianapolis metropolitan police.“There was no confrontation, there was no disturbance, there was no argument, he just appeared to randomly start shooting … that started in the parking lot and then into the facility,” said McCartt. He later added the suspect had a “rifle”. McCartt said the fatalities and injuries occurred in the space of just a few minutes. Five people were hospitalized, according to police. Another two people were treated and released at the scene. A witness said that he was working inside the building 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.” Mindy Carson was one of the family members gathered at a nearby hotel to await word on loved ones. “When you see notifications on your phone, but you’re not getting a text back from your kid and you’re not getting information and you still don’t know where they are what are you supposed to do?” said Carson, holding back tears. Her daughter, Jessica, works in the facility and she had not heard from her. The incident is the third mass shooting in Indianapolis this year, and is the latest in a string of such attacks across the US in recent months. After a significant drop in mass shootings during a pandemic-hit 2020, the Gun Violence Archive said 147 mass shootings have occurred so far in 2021. Their definition of mass shooting is a minimum of four gunshot victims. “This morning, for the third time, since January our community woke up to news of a senseless crime that will not soon leave our memory,” the Indianapolis police chief, Randal Taylor, lamented. 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 an argument at a home in March. Eight people were fatally shot at massage businesses across metro Atlanta, and 10 died in gunfire at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, last month. The Indianapolis mayor, Joe Hogsett, called the shooting part of a “cycle of violence” attributable to “readily accessible guns” in America. Before the mass shooting, Hogsett was one of more than 150 mayors who signed a letter calling on the US Senate to close firearms background check loopholes and strengthen gun control laws.“Beyond the need for comfort for the grieving, we must guard against resignation or even despair – the assumption that this is simply how it must be and that we might as well get used to it,” said Hogsett. “We need the courage that compels courageous acts that push past weariness.” Joe Biden last week announced a half-dozen executive actions to combat what he called an “epidemic and an international embarrassment” of gun violence in America, but he said much more is needed. “Last night and into the morning in Indianapolis, yet again families had to wait to hear word about the fate of their loved ones. What a cruel wait and fate that has become too normal and happens every day somewhere in our nation,” the president said in a statement on Friday.“Gun violence is an epidemic in America. But we should not accept it. We must act.” FedEx said: “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. We are working to gather more information and are cooperating with investigating authorities.”
