Eight people were killed and several injured by a gunman who is also dead after a shooting late Thursday night at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis, Ind., police confirmed.
Five people were hospitalized and one of them had critical injuries, police said. Another two people were treated and released at the scene. FedEx said people who worked for the company were among the dead.
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department spokesperson Genae Cook told reporters early Friday that officers were called to the facility just after 11 p.m. Thursday.
Police found an active shooting scene at the FedEx Ground facility near the Indianapolis International Airport in the city’s southwest, with “multiple people” suffering from gunshot wounds, she said, her voice shaking.
The shooter took his own life at the facility, Cook added. “There is no longer an active threat,” she said.
At a later briefing, Cook confirmed there were eight victims found dead at the shooting scene, as well as “multiple” people who suffered injuries of varying degrees.
“We have been made aware of multiple other people with injuries who have been transported to local hospitals, or who have transported themselves to local hospitals,” she told reporters.
The city’s local ABC and NBC affiliates earlier quoted an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department spokesperson calling the incident a “mass casualty” event.
WRTV, the ABC affiliate, reported after Cook’s announcement that “several weapons” were found with the shooter’s body, citing police sources.
Witnesses told local media that shots were fired both inside and outside the building.
“I saw a man with a submachine gun of some sort, an automatic rifle, and he was firing in the open,” Jeremiah Miller, who works at the facility, told WISH-TV. His friend and co-worker Timothy Boillat said he saw a body on the floor.
Another man told CBS affiliate WTTV that his niece was sitting in her car in the driver’s seat at a nearby gas station when the gunfire erupted, and she was wounded.
“She got shot on her left arm,” said Parminder Singh. “She’s fine, she’s in the hospital now.”
Police did not respond to requests for comment from Global News on Thursday.
It’s not yet clear what the motive for the shooting was or what connection, if any, the shooter had to the FedEx facility.
In a statement, FedEx told Global News it is “aware of the tragic shooting at our FedEx Ground facility,” and is cooperating with investigators as the company gathers more information.
“Safety is our top priority, and our thoughts are with all those who are affected,” a spokesperson said.
It was the latest in a recent string of mass shootings across the U.S. Last month, eight people were fatally shot at massage businesses across the Atlanta area, and 10 died in gunfire at a supermarket in Boulder, Colo.
It was at least the third mass shooting this year in Indianapolis alone. Five people, including a pregnant woman, were shot and killed in January, and a man was accused of killing three adults and a child before abducting his daughter during an argument at a home in March.
— with files from the Associated Press
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