A 19-year-old gunman opened fire at a FedEx facility in the US, killing eight people including four Sikhs, and wounding five others as per the community leaders, reports PTI.

The gunman, identified as Brandon Scott Hole of Indiana, was a former employee of FedEx.  He killed himself after the shooting on early Friday morning.

Also Read: Indianapolis shooter identified as Brandon Hole, former FedEx employee

About 90% of the workers at this delivery service facility are said to be Indian-Americans, mostly from the local Sikh community.

Gurinder Singh Khalsa, a community leader, said that he was devastated by the mass shooting and also met the family of the employee of the FedEx facility.

“This is very heartbreaking. The Sikh community is devastated by this tragic incident,” community leader Gurinder Singh Khalsa told PTI over the phone after meeting family members of the employees of the FedEx facility.

US President Joe Biden expressed condolence and said, “Vice President Harris and I have been briefed by our homeland security team on a mass shooting at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis, Indiana, where a lone gunman murdered eight people and wounded several more in the dark of night.”

Community leaders like Khalsa said, “Indiana has around 10,000 members of the Sikh community and post 9/11 attack the Sikh community has suffered a lot. It is high time that strong measures be taken to bring an end to such mass shooting. Enough is enough.”

Maninder Singh Walia, community activist, said four Sikhs who have died have been identified as Amarjt Kaur Sekhon, Jaswinder Kaur, Amarjit Kaur Johal and Jaswinder Singh.

Harpreet Singh Gill (male), 45, has received an injury near his and is hospitalised. The Indianapolis Police is yet to release the names of those killed in the mass shooting.

Biden issued a proclamation in honour of the deceased. He ordered that the national flag be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all federal buildings.

Also Read: ‘National embarrassment,’ says Biden when asked about gun violence in US

“We have families in our country that are grieving the loss of their family members because of gun violence. There is no question that this violence must end. And we are thinking of the families that lost their loved ones,” Vice-President Kamala Harris told reporters.

 Since the Oak Creek Gurdwara mass shooting, which took place on August 5, 2012, killing six members of the community, the Indiana shooting is the worst Sikh massacre in the United States.

 Khalsa said, “This should be a wake up call for the entire country, in particular the Sikhs and Asian Americans, against whom there has been a sudden spurt in hate crimes.”

He added, “We request the president of the United States that he needs to come forward and be serious about hate crimes, especially against the Sikh community because they are very vulnerable due their appearance and look.”

Not ruling out the possibility of a hate crime, Khalsa said community leaders are meeting on Saturday to discuss the tragic incident and the way forward.

“The president should take it seriously — gun controls, automatic semi-automatic guns — they are very lethal,” he said.

“America is the most powerful country in the history of mankind. But it is shameful that we cannot address this growing problem of shooting innocent people all over the US. It is insane,” Khalsa said.

“We are deeply saddened by this latest killing in Indianapolis. It is very troubling to hear random mass shootings taking place in America almost every week. This kind of senseless killing and gun violence needs to stop,” Rajwant Singh, chairman of the Sikh Council on Religion and Education, told PTI.

“The latest rise of violence and hate against Asian Americans is also unsettling for many minority communities. It is so sad to see so many innocent Sikhs become the victim of this violence. We are praying for the victims and their families,” he said.

He urged the Biden administration to offer every help to the victims in Indiana. “The Sikh community is ready to do its part to assist. We also support common-sense gun laws to curb this epidemic in America,” Singh said.

In recent week, this is the third deadly shooting in the United States.