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Brandon Scott Hole was identified by police as the 19-year-old mass shooter who killed eight people and wounded more at an Indianapolis, Indiana, FedEx Ground facility, on Thursday, April 15, 2021.
Hole died at the scene, police believe from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. “FedEx officials have confirmed that Mr. Hole was a former employee of the facility and he was last employed in 2020,” Deputy Chief Craig McCartt said in an afternoon news conference. He said there were at least 100 people in the facility at the time of the shooting. Many people were changing shifts and some were on their dinner break.
Hole was fired from FedEx, family and friends told Fox59 reporter Angela Ganote. The reason is not clear. The suspect’s full name is Brandon Scott Hole; he lived in Indianapolis, Indiana.
The mass shooting broke out in the parking lot and facility near the Indianapolis airport. Reports emerged of people hiding under conveyor belts and being shot in an office and parking lot by a shooter armed with a rifle or machine gun. The weapon was a .223 caliber rifle, according to dispatch audio. He was described as a lone gunman in a hoodie or hat who started randomly shooting in the parking lot before going inside, where a cell phone ban policy stopped some terrified workers from calling for help.
When police arrived at the scene, they found the wounded in cars, inside an office and the facility, and around the parking lot, according to scanner audio, which you can listen to later in this story. Authorities described the situation as an “active shooter” incident at one point on the scanner.
CNN described a “mass shooting” incident at the facility on the southwest side of the city.
Police spokeswoman Genae Cook said at a press conference early the morning of April 16 that the shooting broke out just after 11 p.m. Thursday, April 15, at the FedEx facility at 8951 Mirabel Road. Cook said police “responded on the report of shots being fired at that business. As officers arrived they came into contact with an active shooter incident.” Police said they believed the shooter took his own life. Multiple people with what appeared to be gunshot and other injuries were taken to area hospitals, police said.
“What we are left with this morning is grief,” said Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett in a press conference. He thanked the first responders who responded to the scene.
Indianapolis Police Chief Randal Taylor said during the press conference, “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. This is unacceptable for Indianapolis. IMPD officers went towards danger as they typically do and when they arrived on the scene, they found something that really no one should see. We’ve all been shaken by this heinous act.” Taylor described FedEx as a major employer in Indianapolis.
He said police may never really know “the ins and outs to why this occurred, but we’ll certainly do our best.” McCartt said during the press conference that authorities found preliminarily “that the suspect came to the facility and … got out of his car and pretty quickly started some random shooting outside the facility.
The victims’ names have now been released. Members of the Sikh community were among the victims, the Indianapolis Star reported. The victims are:
Matthew R. Alexander, 32.
Samaria Blackwell, 19.
Amarjeet Johal, 66.
Jaswinder Kaur, 64.
Jaswinder Singh, 68.
Amarjit Skhon, 48.
Karli Smith, 19.
John Weisert, 74.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Authorities Were Warned About Hole Before & Seized a Shotgun ‘From a Dangerous Person,’ Reports Say
CNN’s Ana Cabrera reported that the suspect, Brandon Scott Hole, was on authorities’ radar before the mass shooting.
“Authorities were warned about FedEx suspect’s potential for violence in the past, sources say,” she wrote on Twitter. “The suspect in the Indianapolis mass shooting was known to federal and local authorities prior to the attack.”
Cabrera added, “A family member of the suspected shooter reached out to authorities warning about the suspect’s potential for violence, according to three law enforcement sources briefed on the matter.”
According to the Indianapolis Star, that family member was Hole’s mother. She told police that he might try to commit “suicide by cop” in March 2020, the newspaper reported, so authorities took a shotgun from his home and Hole was interviewed by the FBI in April 2020. . Authorities seized a shotgun from his home and the FBI interviewed him in April 2020, the Star reported.
“The suspect was placed on an immediate detention mental health temporary hold by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department,”FBI Special Agent in Charge Paul Keenan said to the Star. He told the newspaper that Hole wasn’t found to be associated with “Racially Motivated Violent Extremism” at that time.
WTHR journalist Bob Segall wrote, “An IMPD police report states Brandon Hole was arrested on March 3, 2020, when police were dispatched to a far Eastside house (the same house police and ATF searched this morning following the FedEx shooting). The report says police ‘seized shotgun from dangerous person.’
“According to the IMPD report, ‘behavioral health unit initiated immediate detention on male reported to have voiced suicidal ideation,” wrote Segall. “It says the arrested male purchased a shotgun within 24 hours and voiced suicidal ideation before police transported him to a hospital.”
Journalist Ganote reported: “CONFIRMED through family friend and police report. FedEx shooter Brandon Hole was taken via police to hospital on 3/3/20. His mom and sister were there. Police took a pump action shotgun. Report states Hole ‘purchased gun within 24 hours & voiced suicidal ideation.'”
McCart confirmed, “He was found in a couple police reports, one was from last year and one was from 2013….A gun was seized in the one from last year.”
At one point in the initial police dispatch audio, which you can listen to later in this article, dispatchers said the suspect was described as a “white male wearing a hat” or hoodie and carrying a rifle-type weapon.
“We have an active shooter currently at FedEx. They’re reporting at least five people shot,” said a dispatcher.
“This made me stand up and actually look out the entrance door, and I saw a man with a submachine gun of some sort, an automatic rifle, and he was firing in the open,” Jeremiah Miller told WISH. “I immediately ducked down and got scared and my friend’s mother, she came in and told us to get inside the car.”
The mass shooting occurred in the 8900 block of Mirabel Road. Cook, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department spokesperson, told reporters at the press conference early Friday morning, April 16, “After a preliminary search of the grounds inside and out, we have located eight people at the scene with injuries consistent to gunshot wounds. Those eight were pronounced deceased here at the scene. We have been made aware of multiple other people with injuries who have been transported to local hospitals or who have transported themselves to local hospitals.” One victim is in critical condition. The victims’ names have not been released.
FBI special agent in charge Paul Keenan said in the news conference that the FBI is assisting in the search of the suspect’s home. He said it would be premature to speculate on the motive.
McCart said that officers found a “very chaotic and active crime scene. They found several victims injured and several victims deceased, as well as the suspect who was deceased as well from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.”
2. Responding Officers Said They Found Hole Dead at the Scene; Authorities Were Searching an Indianapolis Home Tied to Him
Responding officers quickly believed they had found the suspect dead at the facility. Soon, they were searching a modest Indianapolis home tied to him.
According to WTHR, the suspect’s home stands “on the far east side of Indianapolis near 10th Street and I-465.” Authorities were seen carrying computer equipment and other boxes out of the residence.
“It just shows you never know who’s across the street and who is living in your neighborhood,” a neighbor told the television station.
“We have the suspect here inside it looks like. Looks like he has a gunshot wound to the head. Two rifles here,” an officer said in the dispatch audio. “Unless there’s another person out, this is going to be our suspect here.” Authorities said at one point, “We have four more down inside the building.” They also found two people in the parking lot and one person in the office. Their conditions are not clear.
Cook added in the initial press conference, “IMPD detectives are working with Indiana State Police detectives gathering information and interviewing, not just those who are here at the scene, but also those who have gone to area hospitals seeking medical treatment. … It is very heartbreaking. … The officers responded, they came in, they went in and they did their job. And a lot of them are trying to face this because this is a sight that no one should ever have to see.”
3. A Witness Said the Shooter Pulled a Gun Out of His Trunk
In a video shared by John Curtis on Twitter, one witness told reporters, “One guy showed up and pulled a gun out of his trunk and went inside. People were driving away, but then he started shooting at the cars driving away.” He said the shooting started in the parking lot and then continued in the building.
FedEx said in a now-deleted statement on Twitter after the mass shooting, “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.” Later in the morning, FedEx released a statement on Twitter saying in part, “We are deeply shocked and saddened by the loss of our team members following the tragic shooting.”
According to job listings on the FedEx website, the facility includes a warehouse and the shooting happened just before the shift change between the twilight sort, which starts at 5:30 p.m., and the midnight sort, which begins at 11:30 p.m.
There is also a self-service drop box at the location, according to the FedEx website.
4. The Dispatch Audio Captured Terrifying Scenes as Officers Kept Finding More Victims
Officers found more and more victims as they searched the premises both inside and outside the FedEx facility. You can listen to the earliest dispatch audio below.
The dispatcher said at one point that someone “had been shot.” Then they said two to three were shot. Another dispatcher said a female was “screaming for help.” An officer said “another one is down by the building.” They said the hospitals should prepare for “multiple victims.” One person was described as “conscious, barely.”
“Do we have any living victims needing an ambulance?” an officer asked at one point.
“Person shot. He is outside in the parking lot,” another dispatcher said of another victim. “EMS is en route.”
5. Videos Showed the Chaos at the Scene
Videos on social media showed a large response to the scene.
Sergeant John Perrine of the Indiana State Police tweeted at nearly midnight that “I-70 is closed in both directions between I-465 and Ronald Regan Parkway due to police activity in the area.”
Rafael Sánchez, a WRTV journalist, wrote on Twitter, “Initial details on mass casualty shooting at FedEx facility in Indy.” He said that “the first 911 call came in at 11:07 with people reporting, of course, someone shooting outside the building and then there were reports of people shooting inside of the building.” He said there were multiple injuries and people were hiding under conveyer belts inside.
Authorities were evacuating the building and searching people.
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