INDIANAPOLIS — Families of people who work at the FedEx facility in Indianapolis continued to gather at a Holiday Inn Express & Suites on Friday, waiting in anguished suspense for news about their loved ones.
More than 12 hours after a gunman opened fire at the facility late Thursday, killing eight people and injuring others, some families still had not heard from loved ones as the authorities continued to work to identify victims.
The mood was tense on Friday, as television crews crowded outside the hotel and flags nearby flew at half-staff. A team of chaplains, the American Red Cross and at least one therapy dog stood by. The Indianapolis mayor arrived for a private conversation with the families.
Still, officials said it could still be several hours until they release the names of those who had died. As of Friday morning, the coroner’s office had not been able to go to the shooting site, the authorities said.
As time went on, some families left, relieved, and the news for those remaining grew ominous.
But the situation was complicated because FedEx employees are not allowed to use their phones on the floor of the warehouse, family members said, and officials said surviving employees were rushed to the hotel after the shooting, leaving phones, purses and personal items behind.
Going on more than 12 hours without contact, families hoped — in some cases, prayed — that was why they had not heard from their loved ones.
One of the people at the hotel, Pardeep Sidhu of Plainfield, Ind., said his aunt and uncle worked at the facility and that a friend’s 45-year-old husband had been shot there.
Patricia Holman, the senior chaplain for the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, was one of six chaplains who arrived at the hotel on Friday to provide counseling and comfort. She has been with the city for more than 30 years, first as a police officer, then as a chaplain.
“This isn’t the first time six of us have responded to an event,” she said. “But this is the first time six of us have been necessary.”
“It never gets easier,” she added.
She said they would try to give the affected families as much information as possible about what would happen next, including an autopsy, if they had to deliver the news that a loved one had been killed.
“It’s as difficult for us to tell it as it is for them to hear it,” she said. “This happens far too often.”
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April 16, 2021 at 04:20PM
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