INDIANAPOLIS — Law enforcement officials have found “no indication of racial bias" in the FedEx mass shooting in Indianapolis three months ago, officials said in a press conference Wednesday. The act of violence — which claimed the lives of eight people — was purely “an act of suicidal murder."
Police say that Brandon Scott Hole, the 19-year-old Indianapolis man who fatally shot eight people at a FedEx Ground facility on the city's southwest side in April — including several members of the Sikh community — had planned the attack for at least nine months.
Hole worked at the FedEx facility between August and October 2020. Police believe he targeted his former workplace not because he was trying to right a perceived injustice, but because he was familiar with the "pattern of activity" at the site.
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Investigators also said that Hole decided to kill himself "in a way he believed would demonstrate his masculinity and capability while fulfilling a final desire to experience killing people."
FBI Indianapolis Special Agent in Charge Paul Keenan said Hole's "suicidal thoughts occurred almost daily" in the months leading up to the shooting.
IndyStar previously reported that IMPD responded to Hole's home in March 2020 on a mental health check. Hole was put under an immediate detention at a local hospital and a gun he had recently bought was confiscated. Hole would later buy more guns and use them in the FedEx shooting, according to police.
Amrith Kaur, Legal Director of the Sikh Coalition, shared in a statement Wednesday morning that the organization hoped IMPD and the FBI could have provided more information about how and why they ruled out bias as a motivation.
"While we recognize that it is impossible to know exactly what was in the shooter’s mind, we are disappointed that the IMPD and FBI still have not detailed how they ruled out bias as a possible motive in their accounting of the investigation," Kaur said in the statement.
"Though law enforcement has said this investigation is over, for all the families who lost loved ones, the survivors, the Sikh community, and anyone else impacted by hate violence, these questions will remain forever.”
Investigators reached these conclusions after conducting more than 120 interviews and examining more than 150 pieces of evidence since the April 15 shooting.
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Indianapolis Police Chief Randal Taylor said they spent those months trying to figure out the "why" behind the shooting, which killed eight people, of various ages and faith backgrounds. Four were part of Indianapolis' Sikh community.
"But there was no indication that there was any animosity towards the Sikh community, or any other group for that matter," Keenan said.
Generations of Sikh Hoosiers have worked at the FedEx facility, and some of the victims killed there were Sikh. The names of the victims are: Amarjeet Kaur Johal, 66; Karli Smith, 19; Matthew R Alexander, 32; Samaria Blackwell, 19; Jasvinder Kaur, 50; Jaswinder Singh, 68; Amarjit Sekhon, 48 and John Weisert, 74.
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