INDIANAPOLIS – The former employee who shot eight people at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis legally bought the two rifles used in the attack, despite red flag laws designed to prevent such purchases, police said.
A trail of the two guns found by investigators at the scene revealed that suspect Brandon Scott Hole, 19, of Indianapolis, had legally purchased the guns last July and September, Indianapolis police officials said Saturday.
Police did not say where Hole bought what they described as “assault rifles,” citing the ongoing investigation, but said he used both rifles during the shooting.
Details about the make, model and caliber of the weapons will not be released until the investigation is completed, said Genae Cook, a spokesman for the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.
Authorities said Hole shot and killed eight people, four of them from the city’s Sikh community, in the FedEx facility late Thursday before killing himself.
The FBI said agents questioned Hole last year after his mother called the police to say her son might “ commit suicide by a cop. ” According to a police report, agents confiscated a pump-action shotgun from Hole’s home after responding to the call. Police said the gun was never returned to him.
Republican Senator Todd Young called on Sunday for more mental health services at all levels of governments.
“We know we have a Hoosier family who were crying out for help, knowing they had a child who needed mental health care. We know that we have members of our law enforcement community who have responded to that call for help for a period of time. And we know that in the end that wasn’t enough, ”he told The Associated Press before addressing a meeting at the Gurdwara Sikh Satsang, a Sikh house of worship on the east side of Indianapolis.
Young wondered if Indiana red flag laws were “actually enforced” to prevent the shooting.
Mark Bode, a spokesperson for Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett, said his office on Sunday that his office also “continues to closely monitor the findings of the ongoing investigation, and what glitches in the procedures for the red flag law may have played a role.”
Indiana has had a “red flag” law since 2005 that allows police or courts to seize weapons from people showing signs of violence. It became one of the first states to enact such a law after a police officer in Indianapolis was murdered by a man whose weapons had to be returned months earlier despite hospitalization for an emergency mental health assessment.
The law is designed to prevent people from buying or possessing a firearm if they are found by a judge to be “an immediate risk” to themselves or others.
Authorities have two weeks after seizing a person’s weapon to plead in court that the person should not possess a weapon. Officials have not said whether Hole’s case has been brought to court. Michael Leffler, a spokesman for the Marion County prosecutor, said on Sunday that the office is “investigating this matter.”
If Hole had had a hearing and was victorious, state law indicates that the rifle would have been returned to him. However, if a judge had declared him dangerous or incompetent, he should not have bought another weapon.
Gaganpal S. Dhaliwal, a member of the Sikh community who also spoke at the rally Sunday, added that the victims’ families want to see “common sense gun laws” and stricter hate crime policies.
“This shooter had confiscated a shotgun, but he could still get hold of rifles,” said Dhaliwal. “We must ensure that weapons do not end up in the wrong hands.”
Dhaliwal also called for about two dozen expedited visas from the US and Indian governments to allow family members to travel for funeral ceremonies to be held in the next two weeks, he said.
Hole was a former employee at the FedEx facility who quit his job last year, police said. Authorities have not yet announced a possible motive for the attack.
Hole’s family said in a statement that they “are so sorry for the pain and pain” his actions have caused.
The attack was another blow to the Asian-American community a month after authorities said six people of Asian descent were killed by a gunman in the Atlanta area and amid ongoing attacks on Asian Americans during the coronavirus pandemic.
According to police, about 90% of the employees at the FedEx warehouse at Indianapolis International Airport are members of the local Sikh community.
The shooting is the deadliest incident of collective violence in the US Sikh community since 2012, when a white supremacist raided a Sikh temple in Wisconsin and killed ten people, killing seven.
Casey Smith is a corps member of the Associated Press / Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a national nonprofit service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on hidden issues.