The head of the union for the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department is lashing out at an Indiana prosecutor he says failed to use the state’s “red flag” gun law against the alleged FedEx shooter.
Marion County prosecutor Ryan Mears has admitted his office declined to pursue a competency hearing against Brandon Hole, 19, last year, as allowed under the gun law.
Such a hearing could have been held when a shotgun was seized from Hole last year after his mother told cops she feared he wanted to commit suicide by cop, officials said.
The lack of hearing cleared the way for Hole to legally purchase the two weapons he used in the massacre, the police union head is complaining, according to local station WLKY.
The FedEx massacre left eight people dead.
“Why didn’t the prosecutor seek the hearing that the statute requires? Why didn’t the prosecutor use all the legal tools available? Why didn’t the prosecutor try?” said Indianapolis Fraternal Order of Police President Rick Snyder, who added that Mears “failed to do his part.”
Under the law, prosecutors would have had to bring their case against Hole to a judge within 14 days, and convince them Hole had a “high propensity for violence.”
If they failed, Hole would have gotten the gun back.
“In this particular situation, we had a case where it was just a single incident, there weren’t any other incidents reported to us, the firearm was taken from the home, there was an agreement that firearm wouldn’t be returned,” Mears said.
Indiana Republican state Sen. Erin Houchin told WLKY the law “could have worked just as it should” in the case of the eventual FedEx shooter.
“I think that had the prosecutor followed the red flag procedure in this case, then this 19-year-old might have not been able to purchase a second firearm after the family did voluntarily turn over that weapon,” Houchin said.