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Eight killed in shooting at FedEx site in Indianapolis

Police say shooter died by suicide and there is no active threat to community

The shooting incident occurred at a FedEx facility on Mirabel Road, close to the Indianapolis International Airport. File photograph: Mike Blake/Reuters

Fri Apr 16 2021 - 08:28

At least eight people were killed in a shooting at a FedEx warehouse in Indianapolis late on Thursday, and the gunman was believed to have died by suicide, police said.

Officer Genae Cook of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department told reporters on Friday morning that there were “multiple people with injuries consistent with gunshot wounds” as a result of the shooting, and that eight people had died.

Ms Cook said there was no active threat to the community because the assailant was believed to have died by suicide. She asked people who had been unable to make contact with family members who work at FedEx to gather at a Holiday Inn Express about a mile from the warehouse, adding that representatives of the chaplain’s office of the police department would be there to assist them.

At about 2.45am on Friday, the mood was sombre at the hotel, where about 110 people anxiously waited for news. FedEx employees are not allowed to use their phones on the floor of the warehouse, so those gathered had not heard from their loved ones.

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The FedEx warehouse where the shooting occurred is on the city’s southwest side, near the airport. The highway exit was blocked off by law enforcement vehicles.

“We are aware of the tragic shooting at our FedEx Ground facility near the Indianapolis airport,” Jim Masilak, a FedEx spokesman, said in a statement early on 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 co-operating with investigating authorities.”

Ms Cook told reporters that the police had arrived at the scene just after 11pm, responding to a report that shots had been fired. They encountered an “active shooter incident”, she said.

‘Ducked down’

A reporter with WRTV, an Indianapolis station, posted an interview on Twitter with a man who said he had been at the facility when the shooting broke out and later saw a body on the floor.

Wish, another local station, quoted an employee at the warehouse, Jeremiah Miller, as saying that he had heard up to 10 shots after finishing his shift. “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,” Mr Miller told the station. “I immediately ducked down and got scared and my friend’s mother, she came in and told us to get inside the car.“

There has been a spate of mass shootings across the United States in recent weeks. In mid-March, eight people were shot dead at three massage parlours in the Atlanta area, raising fears that the crimes may have targeted people of Asian descent. Less than a week later, 10 people were killed when a gunman opened fire at a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado.

At the end of March, a gunman killed four people, including a 9-year-old boy, at a real estate office in Southern California. In early April, five people, including two children, were killed by a neighbour, who was later identified as a former professional football player. – New York Times

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