Eight people were killed in a shooting at a FedEx facility near Indianapolis late Thursday night, authorities said.
Multiple other people were injured and either drove themselves to hospitals or were taken in ambulances, said Genea Cook, a public information officer for the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. At least one person who was taken to the hospital in an ambulance was in critical condition with a gunshot wound.
Indianapolis police identified the victims late Friday as Matthew 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 gunman drove into the parking lot, exited his vehicle and quickly began shooting, according to Craig McCartt, deputy chief of investigations for the Indianapolis police.
“It wasn’t precipitated by any kind of disturbance or argument with anyone there,” McCartt told CNN on Friday morning. “So the first shooting occurred in the parking lot, and then he went inside. He didn’t get that far into the facility so I think that it probably only lasted one to two minutes.”
Cook said that authorities responded to reports of a shooting around 11 p.m. Thursday. When officers arrived at a “chaotic” scene, they found the gunman dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Police identified the suspect as a younger adult male on Friday afternoon but did not immediately release any more information about him. However, law enforcement officials briefed on the matter told both The Associated Press and NBC News that the suspect is 19-year-old Brandon Scott Hole of Indiana. Investigators reportedly searched his house and seized desktop computers and other electronic media.
FBI officials revealed that they questioned the suspect last year after his mother alerted authorities that her son might attempt “suicide by cop.” Police had called in the FBI after finding unidentified items in his bedroom.
Police Chief Randal Taylor also noted that a “significant” number of employees at the FedEx facility are members of the Sikh community. The Sikh Coalition, a Sikh civil rights organization, confirmed that members of its community were among the casualties and injuries, saying at least four of those killed were Sikh.
No police officers were injured in the altercation. No officers fired their weapons during the incident, police told HuffPost.
It was the latest mass shooting in the U.S. this year. In March, eight people were fatally shot at massage spas in the Atlanta area. Six of eight people killed were Asian. Ten people were killed at a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado.
And it was at least the third mass shooting in Indianapolis alone, according to the Associated Press. In March, a gunman killed three adults and a child and abducted his baby daughter, and in January, five people, including a pregnant woman, were shot to death inside a home.
Video footage of the warehouse area showed a heavy police presence at the scene, and a major highway was temporarily closed near the building in both directions due to the response.
Jeremiah Miller, who had just finished a shift and was preparing to start a second consecutive shift, said he heard about 10 gunshots, according to WISH-TV.
“I saw a man with a submachine gun of some sort, an automatic rifle, and he was firing in the open. I immediately ducked down and got scared and my friend’s mother, she came in and told us to get inside the car,” he said.
Family members of the facility’s workers have been asked to gather at a nearby Holiday Inn to await details. Some said employees were not allowed to use their phones at work which was making contacting them difficult, AP reported.
The families were still waiting for answers well into Friday morning.
“We are aware of the tragic shooting at our FedEx Ground facility near the Indianapolis airport,” FedEx said in a statement early Friday. “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.”
Rep. André Carlson (D-Ind.) said in a tweet that he was “heartbroken” by the attack.
Last week, Carson publicly supported President Joe Biden’s executive orders directing the Justice Department to limit the proliferation of guns.
“I welcome his executive actions on gun safety. Congress must also continue our efforts to pass common sense reforms that save lives,” Carson tweeted.
Biden responded to the shooting on Friday, saying such acts of gun violence are “too normal” today.
“It’s a mass shooting just a week after we met, in the Rose Garden, with families who lost children and dear friends as bullets pierced their bodies and souls in schools, a night club, in a car at a gas station, and a town meeting at a grocery store,” he said in a statement. “And it came just the night before 14 anniversary of the shooting at Virginia Tech, in which a gunman murdered 32 people.”
Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett thanked first responders for their efforts.
The FBI will assist Indianapolis police with the investigation, a spokesperson told CBS4 Indy.