FedEx Shooting Motive Is Unclear As Sikh Victims Are Identified Among The Dead
The gunman in the deadly FedEx mass shooting in Indianapolis has been identified as Brandon Scott Hole, 19, but officials said his motive remained unclear even at least half of the eight victims were confirmed as members of the Sikh community.
Source: Jon Cherry / Getty
UPDATED with all victims’ names: 8:45 p.m. ET
The gunman in the nation’s latest deadly mass shooting has been identified, but officials said the motive remained unclear even as four of the eight victims have been identified as members of the Sikh community.
Brandon Scott Hole, a white 19-year-old, was named as the shooter who opened fire at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis on Thursday evening. He is a former employee at that location where reports say was “overwhelmingly” Sikh, which is defined as “the world’s fifth most popular religion” and “a monotheistic faith that believes in equality and service to others.”
The Washington Post identified four of the fatal victims: Jasvinder Kaur, Amarjit Sekhon, Amarjeet Johal, and Jaswinder Singh. They were each identified by members of their families, and Kaur and Sekhon were related. Those four were Sikh.
The other four victims were identified as Matthew R. Alexander, Samaria Blackwell, Karlie Smith and John Weisert.
Hole was an employee at the FedEx facility up until last year, but it was unclear why he no longer worked there and whether he was a disgruntled employee who targeted his victims.
However, what was clear is that the FBI already had Hole on their radar, thanks to his mother contacting them and warning her son had self-destructive tendencies. Hole’s mother warned last year that he may try to commit “suicide by cop.”
On Thursday, Hole died by suicide, officials said.
After being contacted, local law enforcement placed Hole on an “immediate detention mental health hold.” The FBI also interviewed Hole and ultimately rued out any “Racially Motivated Violent Extremism,” concluding that “no criminal violation was found.”
The Indianapolis Metro Police Department (IMPD) said it was still working on determining why Hole went on the shooting spree.
“We’ve recently identified him, so now, the work really begins, trying to establish and see if we can figure out some sort of motive in this, but we don’t have that right now,” IMPD Deputy Chief Craig McCartt said at a press conference Friday afternoon.
If Hole did intentionally target Sikhs working at the FedEx facility, it would be the second time in the past nine years that members of that community were victims of a deadly mass shooting. The last time was in Wisconsin in 2012, when a gunman killed six people at a Sikh temple near Milwaukee.
Either way, the deadly episode in Indianapolis was the sixth deadly mass shooting in the past five weeks, including the ones at three Georgia spas that killed eight people, six of whom were Asian women.
At least five other people were injured in the FedEx shooting, which took just about two minutes.
This is a developing story that will be updated as additional information becomes available.
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