WASHINGTON: As many as eight people, including four Sikhs, were killed and five others injured in a mass shooting at a FedEx facility in the US state of Indiana on early Friday morning. “We have lost eight team members in this senseless act of violence.
Our deepest sympathies with the families of those team members,” Frederick W. Smith, FedEx Chairman and CEO said. The attacker, identified as 19-year-old Brandon Scott Hole of Indiana, died by suicide after the shooting, taking the toll to nine. About 90 per cent of the workers at the delivery service facility are said to be Indian-Americans, mostly from the local Sikh community. “We are deeply saddened by this latest killing in Indianapolis. It’s unsettling to see a rise in violence and hate against Asian Americans. We request the Biden administration to offer help to the victims: Dr Rajwant Singh, chairman of Sikh Council On Religion and Education said.
This is very heart breaking. The Sikh community is devastated by this tragic incident,” community leader Gurinder Singh Khalsa told over the phone after meeting family members of the employees of the FedEx facility. Four Sikhs who have died are Amarjt Kaur Sekhon (female), 48, Jaswinder Kaur (female), Amarjit Kaur Johal (female) and Jaswinder Singh (male). The age of the last three deceased was not immediately available. Harpreet Singh Gill (male), 45, has sustained an injury and is hospitalised. US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris expressed giref over the tragic killings.
Vice President Harris and I have been briefed by our homeland security team on the mass shooting at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis, Indiana, where a lone gunman murdered eight people and wounded several more in the dark of night,” Biden said in a statement.