FDX FedEx Corp

By Erin Mendell and Cameron McWhirter 

A man shot and killed at least eight people and wounded others Thursday night at a FedEx Corp. facility in Indianapolis before apparently killing himself, the city's police said, the latest in a string of high-profile shootings.

Just after 11 p.m. local time Thursday, police responded to reports of shots being fired at the facility near Indianapolis's airport and encountered the shootings still in progress, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department spokeswoman Genae Cook said at a news conference.

Five people with injuries consistent with gunshot wounds were taken to local hospitals, police said. Two victims were treated at the scene and released.

Fred Smith, the founder and chief executive of FedEx, confirmed Friday that eight workers were killed at the Indianapolis Ground facility. In a message to employees, he said it would take some time to understand what happened in "this senseless act of violence."

Mr. Smith said the company was cooperating with law enforcement and providing counselors to local employees and their families. His statement didn't discuss the suspect or potential motive.

The FedEx facility, more than 300,000 square feet, is part of the company's FedEx Ground operations, which mostly handles its ecommerce parcels. The company also operates a major FedEx Express hub at the airport.

There have been several smaller shootings at FedEx and UPS facilities in recent years. In June 2017, a UPS warehouse worker opened fire during a morning meeting of delivery drivers in San Francisco, killing three before turning the gun on himself.

In 2014, a worker at a FedEx facility in suburban Atlanta opened fire at his workplace, wounding multiple people before killing himself.

In recent weeks, there has been a rash of mass shootings in the U.S., after comparatively few over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic. On March 16, a gunman killed eight people at spas in the Atlanta area. Days later, another gunman killed 10 at a supermarket in Boulder, Colo.

Mass shootings tend to come in clusters and when one occurs, another is likely to follow, according to research by the Violence Project, a mass shooting database founded by criminology professors Jillian Peterson and James Densley.

Valerie Bauerlein and Thomas Gryta contributed to this article.

Write to Erin Mendell at erin.mendell@wsj.com and Cameron McWhirter at cameron.mcwhirter@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 16, 2021 10:43 ET (14:43 GMT)

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