19-year-old gunman at Indianapolis FedEx facility kills 8 employees

by Zaid Aleem

An Indianapolis police official told CNN that officers arrived late Thursday night “to a very violent scene, with casualties and witnesses fleeing around” at a FedEx Ground facility near Indianapolis’ main airport, where a former employee shot and killed eight people and injured multiple others before killing himself.

Officials said that four other people who were wounded and another person who was killed were rushed to hospitals and that both of them may have been privately transported. No law enforcement officers were hurt in the shooting that was carried out by a former employee who last worked at the facility this past fall, authorities said late Friday afternoon.

On Friday afternoon, Deputy Chief Craig McCartt named the shooter as 19-year-old Brandon Hole, who worked for FedEx until 2020. McCartt said Hole was found dead from a bullet wound that seemed to be self-inflicted.

In March 2020, the suspect’s mother contacted law enforcement to report he might try to attempt “suicide by cop,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Paul Keenan, who runs the bureau’s Indianapolis field office.

Special Agent in Charge Paul Keenan said Hole was placed on an immediate mental health temporary hold by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. He also said a shotgun was seized at Hole’s residence.

“Based on items observed in the suspect’s bedroom at that time, he was interviewed by the FBI in April 2020,” the statement said. “No Racially Motivated Violent Extremism (RMVE) ideology was identified during the course of the assessment and no criminal violation was found. The shotgun was not returned to the suspect.”

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 the facility,” Craig McCartt, deputy chief of criminal investigations for the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, said during a news conference Friday morning.