Details are beginning to emerge about those who died in the Indianapolis FedEx shooting, where one of the victims had just earned her first salary.
19-year-old Karli Smith had “started to get a job and take life a little more seriously,” said a relative of the young woman, one of eight who was shot after a former employee opened fire at the facility Thursday night. in Indianapolis.
“She was a lovely, beautiful, and youthful teenage girl,” the relative told the Indianapolis Star of Smith, who graduated high school last year.
Samaria Blackwell, also 19, had only joined FedEx two months ago.
She was “such a happy, caring daughter to our family’s baby,” her parents Jeff and Tammi Blackwell said in a statement.
Matthew Alexander, 32, a former student at Butler University in Indianapolis, played baseball at Avon High School, where he was a member of the National Honor Society.
“He was a great brother, son, grandson, nephew, nephew and friend. He was only 32 years old and had a good career at FedEx. He was gentle, kind, loved sports and really was one of the good guys, ”cousin Sheryl Richardson wrote on Facebook. “If you knew him, you liked him. There are no words to say how much he was loved or how much he will be missed. “
John Steven Weisert, 74, had been married for 50 years when he was murdered by a “sick, depraved man seeking revenge on a former employer,” his son Mike wrote on social media.
“I do not and never will understand the reason for this kind of indiscriminate violence. He was a GOOD man. He was a great father. He was a wonderfully devoted and loyal husband of nearly 50 years to my mother. And he was a man who worked very hard all his life to provide his family with the best possible home, ”wrote Mike Weisert.
Gunman Brandon Scott Hole started his frenzy in the FedEx parking lot, where he randomly started firing his weapon, killing four people, before entering the building, police said.
Once inside, he killed four more people before shooting himself. Hole last worked for the company in 2020.
Police have yet to specify the type of pistol hole being used, identifying the weapon only as “an assault rifle” and refusing to provide further details when reached by The Post.
An eyewitness, FedEx employee Levi Miller, told Friday during the “Today” show that the shooter was “a hooded figure” who “had an AR in his hand.”
The victims included four members of Indiana’s burgeoning Sikh community, including Amarjit Sekhon. The 48-year-old mother of two boys, ages 22 and 16, had just started working at the FedEx facility in November.
“She was a workaholic, she always worked, worked,” said her brother-in-law Kuldip Sekhon.
Jasvinder Kaur, 50, had a daughter and a son and moved to the United States in 2018. She sent money from her job at FedEx to help support her son in India, the Indy Star said.
Jaswinder Singh was 68. His family told the Indian media that Singh had moved to the United States eight years ago.
It’s “very sad,” Singh’s cousin Dalbar Singh told Republic World.
Amarjeet Kaur Johal, 66, was a grandmother who planned to work a double shift on Thursday so she could take Friday off, according to a grandson’s Twitter account.
“I have several family members who work in the facility in question and are traumatized,” the grandson wrote.
That so many of the victims were Sikhs sparked outrage and called for action against those targeting people of color.
“It was no coincidence that the shooter was targeted by this particular FedEx facility where he had worked and knew the vast majority was manned by Sikhs,” the Sikh national coalition said in a statement on Saturday.
This was not a sham crime or a spur of the moment. It was one of methodical planning and selection that reflected the purpose of Asian-American spas in Atlanta exactly a month ago. “