US police: FedEx shooter bought assault rifles despite ‘red flag law’
- Indianapolis shooter Brandon Scott Hole had a previous gun confiscated after his mother called police to say that he might commit ‘suicide by cop’
- Elsewhere in the US, three people were killed and two were seriously wounded in a shooting at a busy tavern in southeastern Wisconsin
A trace of the two guns found by investigators at the scene revealed that suspect Brandon Scott Hole, 19, of Indianapolis, legally bought the rifles in July and September of last year, officials with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department said.
IMPD did not share where Hole bought the guns, citing the ongoing investigation, but said Hole was witnessed using both rifles during the assault.
Deputy Police Chief Craig McCartt said Hole began firing randomly at people in the car park of the FedEx facility late on Thursday, killing four, before entering the building, fatally shooting four more people and then turning the gun on himself.
Indiana has had a “red flag law” allowing police or courts to seize guns from people who show warning signs of violence since 2005, when it became one of the first states to enact such a law after an Indianapolis police officer was killed by a man whose weapons had to be returned despite hospitalisation months earlier for an emergency mental health evaluation.