On April 15, 2021, a mass shooting occurred at a FedEx Ground facility in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. Nine people were killed, including the gunman, 19 year-old former employee Brandon Scott Hole, who committed suicide. Seven others were injured, including four by gunfire.[1][4][5][6] It was the worst mass shooting in the history of Indianapolis.[2]
The FedEx facility where the shooting occurred is located in the southwestern part of the city, near Indianapolis International Airport.[7] It is the company's second-busiest hub, with nearly 4,000 employees in total.[8] The building is equipped with metal detectors and security turnstiles at its entrance requiring the employees to scan their FedEx badges.[9] There were at least 100 people in the facility at the time of the shooting, and many of them were changing shifts or on lunch breaks.[8][10]
Hole drove to the facility, arriving during a shift change.[11] He first went into the building and spoke with security, then he returned to his vehicle.[2] According to Indianapolis police, Hole began firing at employees in the parking lot with a rifle shortly after exiting his vehicle again. He then proceeded to the facility's entrance, where he resumed shooting.[11] The shooting lasted less than four minutes.[12] A witness reported hearing him yelling but could not understand what he was saying. According to other witnesses, people inside the facility were unable to contact help due to the company's no-phone policy.[13]
Officers with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department responded to the scene shortly after 11:00 p.m. local time.[1] Hole had killed himself inside the facility before they arrived.[12][14] An audio recording of the police dispatch for the scene of the shooting indicated that Hole was found with two rifles.[15]
There were nine fatalities in the shooting, including Hole.[6][16] Their ages ranged from 19 to 74 years old. Four victims were found dead outside the facility, and another four were found dead inside.[17] Four of the victims were Sikhs.[18][19] According to the local police chief, about 90% of workers at the facility were members of the local Sikh community.[20] Four other people were taken to the hospital, including one who was in critical condition; all of them suffered gunshot wounds. A fifth person sought treatment in another county, while two others were treated at the scene and released.[1][4][6]
Police identified the gunman as Brandon Scott Hole (born 20 August 2001), a 19-year-old Indianapolis resident who had been employed at the FedEx facility from August to October 2020; he was fired for failing to return to work.[12][21] After the shooting, authorities conducted a search of his home and seized evidence, including electronics.[6][7][22] An investigation of archived content from Hole's deleted Facebook accounts did not reveal any potential motives. Hole's Facebook account did reveal, however, that he was a "brony", a fan of the animated series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, a fandom with some documented ties to far-right, white supremacist extremism,[23][24] partially attributable to the fandom's origins on anonymous imageboard website 4chan. Less than an hour before the shooting, he posted to his Facebook account: "I hope that I can be with Applejack in the afterlife, my life has no meaning without her. If there's no afterlife and she isn't real then my life never mattered anyway."[25] After an investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) eventually concluded that the shooting was "an act of suicidal murder" intended to "demonstrate his masculinity and capability while fulfilling a final desire to experience killing people."[2]