FedEx shooting gunman killed half his victims outside the facility: cops

Details are beginning to emerge about those killed in the Indianapolis FedEx shooting, where one of the victims had just earned her first paycheck.

Karli Smith, 19, had “started to buckle down and get a job and take life a little more serious,” said a relative of the young woman, one of eight gunned down after a former employee opened fire at the Indianapolis facility Thursday night.

“She was a lovely, beautiful and youthful teenage girl,” the family member told the Indianapolis Star of Smith, who graduated high school last year.

Samaria Blackwell, also 19, had joined FedEx only two months ago.

She was “such a fun-loving, caring daughter at the baby of our family,” 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 wonderful brother, son, grandson, nephew, cousin and friend. He was only 32 years old and had a good career with FedEx. He was gentle, kind, liked sports and was truly 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 50 years when he was killed by a “sick, depraved human being out for revenge against a former employer,” his son Mike wrote on social media.

“I don’t understand and will never understand the reason for this kind of random violence. He was a GOOD man. He was a great father. He was a wonderfully devoted and faithful husband of almost 50 years to my mom. And he was a man who worked very hard throughout his life to provide the best home he possibly could for his family,” Mike Weisert wrote.

Shooter Brandon Scott Hole began his rampage in the FedEx parking lot, where he began randomly firing his weapon, killing four people, before making his way into the building, according to police.

Once inside, he killed four more people, before shooting and killing himself. Hole had last worked for the company in 2020.

Brandon Hole, who killed eight people at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis.
Brandon Hole, who killed eight people at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis.
INDINAPOLIS METROPOLITAN POLICE

Police have yet to specify what type of gun Hole used, identifying the weapon only as “an assault rifle” and refusing to give more details when reached by The Post.

One eyewitness, FedEx employee Levi Miller, told the “Today” show Friday the shooter was “a hooded figure” who “had an AR in his hand.”

Among the victims were 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 begun working at the FedEx facility in November.

“She was a workaholic, she always was working, working,” said her brother-in-law Kuldip Sekhon.

Jasvinder Kaur, 50, had a daughter and a son and had moved to the United States in 2018. She sent money from her job at FedEx to help support her son in India, according to the Indy Star.

Jaswinder Singh was 68. His family told India media Singh had moved to the United States eight years ago.

It’s “very sad,” Singh’s nephew Dalbar Singh told Republic World.

Amarjeet Kaur Johal, 66, was a grandmother who planned to work a double shift on Thursday so that she might take Friday off, according to a grandson’s Twitter account.

“I have several family members who work at the particular facility and are traumatized,” the grandson wrote.

That so many of the victims were Sikh sparked outrage and calls for action against those targeting people of color.

“It was no accident that the shooter targeted this particular FedEx facility where he had worked and knew was overwhelmingly staffed by Sikhs,” said the national Sikh Coalition in a statement Saturday.  

“This was not a crime of convenience or a spur of the moment attack. It was one of methodical planning and selection which echoes the targeting of Asian American spa parlors in Atlanta exactly one month ago.”

source: nypost.com