According to police, a gunman opened fire outside and inside a FedEx Ground facility near Indianapolis‘ main airport on Thursday night, killing eight people, injuring several others, and sending witnesses fleeing before killing himself.
Police were called to the facility about 11 p.m.
This will be the country’s deadliest shooting since the march 22nd shooting at a Colorado grocery store, killing 10.
The names of the victims and the shooter have yet to be released.
Indianapolis police Deputy Chief Craig McCartt told CNN early this morning that, “The gunman came into the parking lot, and I believe he exited his vehicle and quickly began shooting…The first shooting occurred in the parking lot, and then he went inside and did not get very far into the facility at all.”
He said, “I think that it probably only lasted one to two minutes, from what we’re hearing.”
After the Atlanta-area spa shootings on March 16, this is at least the 45th mass shooting in the United States.
McCartt described the scene in Indianapolis as “a very chaotic scene, with victims and witnesses running everywhere.”
According to McCartt, the gunman killed himself as police approached him. He stated that no police officers were shot.
Indianapolis police spokeswoman Genae Cook said the reason for the shooting was unknown at the time.
The wounded have been described in a variety of ways by police. At least four survivors were admitted to the hospital with bullet wounds, and a fifth was treated with a shrapnel-related injury, according to McCartt.
Five people were taken to a hospital with gunshot wounds, according to police, while two others were treated and released at the scene.
According to McCartt, the gunman had at least one weapon, “a rifle of some sort,” and investigators were trying to figure out if he had more.
Early Friday, police were still trying to piece together the crime scene, as families of FedEx workers gathered at a nearby hotel to hear what had happened to their loved ones.
“Many of the workers did not have cell phones in the facility,” McCartt said, adding that many survivors were unable to reach their families right away.
According to CNN affiliate WISH, two workers inside the building at the time heard up to ten gunshots.
Jeremiah Miller and Timothy Boillat initially assumed the noise was coming from a vehicle, but after hearing more, Miller stood up and saw a man with a knife, according to him.
“After hearing the shootings, I did see a body on the floor behind a vehicle,” Boillat said.
Before he saw the corpse, Boillat observed “somebody went behind their car to the trunk and got another gun.” Boillat did not specify whether or not that person was the gunman.
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