[ad_1]
At least eight people have been killed after a gunman opened fire at a delivery company in Indianapolis.
Police were called to the FedEx facility at around 11pm Thursday local time following reports shots had been fired.
The building is located near Indianapolis International Airport.
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police have confirmed eight victims have died from apparent gunshot wounds. They were pronounced dead at the scene.
The gunman is also dead after taking his own life when police arrived on the scene.
“We don’t feel there is an active threat to the community at this time,” Public Information Officer Genae Cook told reporters.
“We have multiple people with injuries consistent with gunshot wounds. We have others that have been transported to various hospitals throughout the area.”
According to unconfirmed reports from a police source, at least 20 people were treated for injuries in the shooting.
Around 60 people were evaluated for injuries, with 10 taken to hospital and at leats 20 treated for wounds, a police source reportedly told journalist Matthew Keys.
Earlier, police said there were “multiple victims”, though it was unclear exactly how many people were shot or the extent of their injuries.
The scene has been declared a “mass causality, Level 1”, according to local news reports. This reportedly allows more emergency responders to be dispatched to the scene.
The Indianapolis FedEx facility employees more than 4500 people and is the company’s second largest hub in the world.
Employees inside the FedEx revealed they saw the gunman just metres away from where they were hiding, Jeremiah Miller telling WISH he heard multiple shots being fired.
“This made me stand up and actually look out the entrance door, and I saw a man with a submachine gun of some sort, an automatic rifle, and he was firing in the open,” Jeremiah Miller told WISH.
“I immediately ducked down and got scared and my friend’s mother, she came in and told us to get inside the car.”
Another eyewitness, Timothy Boillat, said he didn’t see anyone get shot but claimed he saw a “dead body” in the parking lot.
“(The shooting) started off in the parking lot then it went into the building and back into the parking lot,” he said.
“People were driving away but then he started shooting at the cars driving away.”
Paraminder Singh, a family member of one of the victims, told a FOX59 journalisthis niece was in her car when the gunman started shooting at her vehicle.
The woman was shot in the arm and was transported to hospital.
Mr Singh said she called him and told him there had been shots fired in the FedEx building.
“She called as I was asleep at home. She said there was a shooting in the FedEx. So we just drove from Brownsburg,” he said.
Another man, Ian Johnston, told the news outlet that his wife, who works at the facility, had texted to tell him there was an active shooter inside.
“I communicated with her for a while and then it went silent for a while. So I came here just to see what was going on and when I got here she texted me and said ‘I’m OK’,” he said.
FedEx released a statement following the shooting, confirming the company was co-operating with authorities.
“We are aware of the tragic shooting at our FedEx Ground facility near the Indianapolis airport,” the statement read.
“Safety is our top priority, and our thoughts are with all those who are affected. We are working to gather more information and are co-operating with investigating authorities.”
Officials have closed the Interstate 70 in both directions near the scene due to “police activity”, with motorists told to use an alternate route.
This incident follows several mass shootings in recent weeks across the US.
At the end of last month, four people, including a child, were shot dead in an office building in southern California.
On March 22, 10 people were killed in a shooting at a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado.
That came less than a week after a man shot and killed eight people, including six women of Asian descent, at spas in Atlanta, Georgia.
Tensions over gun control are at a high in the US after President Joe Biden announced six executive measures he said would help stem the gun violence crisis.
The moves were immediately attacked by Republicans, with the party’s senior leader in the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, warning of “unconstitutional overreach”.
Mr Biden branded gun violence an “epidemic” and an “international embarrassment” during his April 8 speech.
His six measures included a proposed rule to “stop proliferation of ghost guns,” as firearms built from home kits are known. The White House says these homemade weapons are especially of concern because they have no serial numbers and cannot be traced after being used in crimes.
Another proposed rule will be tightening regulations on arm braces designed to stabilise pistols, a device used by the man who killed 10 people in a Colorado grocery store last month. Under the rule, pistols with braces would be classified as short-barrelled rifles, putting them under stricter control.
Other measures include boosting support for agencies involved in tackling community violence and ordering the first comprehensive report on firearms trafficking in the United States since 2000.
[ad_2]
Source link
