FedEx gunman was 19-year-old former employee whose mom warned FBI about him last year

The gunman in the deadly mass shooting at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis was reported to the FBI last year by his mom, who told the feds he might try to commit “suicide by cop.”

Brandon Scott Hole, 19, last worked for FedEx in 2020 at the same processing plant he targeted for mass murder, police said.

He was toting a rifle when he unleashed his terror Thursday night, killing eight people in the latest gun rampage to grip the country.

Hole started shooting people at random in the FedEx facility’s parking lot and then entered the building to continue his carnage, Indianapolis Police Deputy Chief Craig McCartt said.

Brandon Scott Hole, pictured, the gunman in the deadly mass shooting at a Fed Ex facility in Indianapolis.

Police said they were still searching for a motive Friday in the senseless slaughter but noted a “significant” number of staffers at the facility were members of the Sikh community.

Asked about Hole’s prior run-ins with authorities, McCartt said he knew of “a couple of police reports.”

“One of those is from last year,” McCartt said. “I know a gun was seized in the one from last year.”

A body is taken from the scene where multiple people were shot at a FedEx Ground facility in Indianapolis. (Michael Conroy/)

Paul Keenan, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Indianapolis field office, detailed that incident in a statement Friday.

“In March 2020, the suspect’s mother contacted law enforcement to report he might try to commit ‘suicide by cop’,” Keenan revealed.

“The suspect was placed on an immediate detention mental health temporary hold by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. A shotgun was seized at his residence. Based on items observed in the suspect’s bedroom at that time, he was interviewed by the FBI in April 2020,” he said.

“No Racially Motivated Violent Extremism (RMVE) ideology was identified during the course of the assessment and no criminal violation was found. The shotgun was not returned to the suspect,” Keenan said.

Hole apparently died by suicide shortly before police entered the building after rushing to the scene around 11 p.m. Thursday, McCartt told reporters.

McCartt said at least a hundred people were inside the plant when the spasm of violence started without any warning.

“There was no confrontation with anyone that was there,” McCartt said. “There was no disturbance, there was no argument. He just appeared to randomly start shooting.”

Mary Carol Weisert displays a picture of her husband, John Weisert, near his workplace at a FedEx ground facility in Indianapolis on Friday. Weisert says she does not know what happened to her husband. (Jon Cherry/)

McCartt said four victims were shot and killed outside the building and the remaining four died inside.

Paramedics transported another four victims with “injuries consistent (with) a gunshot wound” to various hospitals, officials said.

Two other victims suffered minor injuries and were treated at the scene while a seventh person sought treatment in another county for an injury “consistent with a gunshot wound,” McCartt said.

A vehicle with blood on the passenger side door sits vacant in the parking lot of a FedEx SmartPost on Friday in Indianapolis. (Jon Cherry/)

Investigators searched a home in Indianapolis associated with Hole and seized evidence, including desktop computers and other electronic media, police officials said.

McCartt said he didn’t know if Hole had been fired, laid off or decided to leave FedEx last year of his own accord.

Asked about the innocent night-shift workers who lost their lives, he said coroner officials were still working Friday afternoon to formally identify all of the victims and notify their next of kin.

“While it will take some time to fully understand what happened, we know we lost eight team members in this senseless act of violence,” FedEx Chairman and CEO Frederick Smith wrote in a letter to employees Friday.

The New York-based Sikh Coalition, which identifies itself as the largest Sikh civil rights organization in the U.S., said in a statement Friday that it was “deeply saddened to learn that Sikh community members are among those injured and killed” at the facility.

The coalition said it expects authorities will “conduct a full investigation — including the possibility of bias as a factor.”

President Biden said he had been briefed on the mass shooting and “strongly” supports universal background checks and a ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines.

“This has to end. It’s a national embarrassment,” Biden said from the White House on Friday. “Every single day, there’s a mass shooting in the United States. ... It’s a national embarrassment and must come to an end.”

One witness to the FedEx tragedy told WTHR-TV he was working late as usual Thursday when the bullets started flying.

“I see a man come in with a rifle in his hand and starts firing and he starts yelling stuff that I could not understand,” Levi Miller told the station.

“What I ended up doing was ducking down to make sure he did not see me because I thought he would see me and shoot me.”

People hug after learning that their loved one is safe after a shooting inside a FedEx building Friday, April 16.

After the shooting unfolded, worried relatives and friends huddled together at a reunification center, hoping their loved ones were not among the dead or injured.

“I’m just worried about my father,” Ashlee Floyd told the Indianapolis Star. “I don’t know if he’s OK. I don’t know if he’s injured. I don’t know if he’s gone. I’m just scared right now.”

The deadly incident was the latest in a series of mass shootings that have unfolded across the nation this week and the third mass shooting this year in Indianapolis alone.

With News Wire Services