The former FedEx employee who shot and killed eight people at an Indianapolis company warehouse in April was not motivated by racism, authorities announced Wednesday.
Brandon Scott Hole, a 19-year-old former Fed-Ex employee who shot and killed eight FedEx employees, including four members of the city’s Sikh community on April 15 before killing himself, chose the warehouse location for the shooting because it was familiar to him, Indianapolis police and federal authorities said during a press conference.
Hole used the attack as an act of “suicidal murder” and believed it would “demonstrate his masculinity and capability” while completing a desire to experience killing people, officials said.
“He knew the location well,” said Paul Keenan, an agent at the FBI’s Indianapolis field office. “He knew there would be a large group of people there that he would consider targets.”
EIGHT KILLED IN MASS SHOOTING AT FEDEX FACILITY NEAR INDIANAPOLIS AIRPORT
Keenan said Hole previously viewed “World War II, Nazi-like propaganda” on the internet, but said that did not appear to be part of a trend.
“It was an extremely small percentage … but there were some mainly German military and Nazi things, but there was no indication that there was any animosity towards the Sikh community, or any other group for that matter,” Keenan said.
Sikh Coalition Legal Director Amrith Kaur said it was “impossible” to know Hole’s direct line of motivation for the attack but expressed disappointment when authorities ruled out the bias as a motive.
“It is important to recognize that bias can be a factor in addition to these other issues,” Kaur said in a statement on Wednesday. “Though law enforcement has said this investigation is over, for all the families who lost loved ones, the survivors, the Sikh community, and anyone else impacted by hate violence, these questions will remain forever.”
Hole also believed the facility would be a location with access to a large number of vulnerable victims, authorities added.
Hole had suicidal thoughts “almost daily” in the months before the attack, Keenan said. The 19-year-old attempted suicide on “more than one occasion” and had struggled with mental health “throughout his life,” the FBI agent added.
Marion County prosecutor Ryan Mears has received criticism from the leader of the Indianapolis police union for choosing not to pursue court hearings in 2020 that might have prevented Hole from gaining access to firearms.
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Mears said in April that authorities did not seek a hearing due to the limited amount of time the state’s law provides to demonstrate someone’s inclination for suicidal thoughts.
