My little house-on-a-slab is located at the southeast end of Plainfield, Indiana, maybe 1.5 miles just northeast of Interstate 70. I'm within spitting distance of Indianapolis International Airport. Seriously, it only takes about 12 minutes from my front door to the terminal. The airport is actually just one major exit east of the Pfield exit on the interstate. Much of the land on the far east side of Plainfield has been purchased by the airport, and all around the outskirts of Plainfield are warehouses that are there due to airport proximity.
FedEx, an American shipping company, has a terminal at the airport that you can see from I-70 to the north. Just short of that, on the south side of the interstate, in Pfield territory, is another FedEx facility called FedEx Ground--Plainfield Operations. It was at the latter last night, at 11:00 PM, that a very young man (19) drove into the parking lot and started shooting. He killed four and wounded others, then went inside and killed four more and injured more. And then, he killed himself.
The story behind the shooter is a sad one. His family had alerted authorities last year that he was armed, suicidal, and thinking about committing "suicide by cop". (For those readers out of the country, this means behaving dangerously in order to force law enforcement to shoot to kill.) Apparently, this shooter didn't wait for the police to arrive. He did himself in before they got there. I think someone said that whole thing was over in 2-3 minutes...
When the news hit the media, many people with family that worked there didn't hear from their loved ones that they were okay because FedEx has a rule that employees cannot have their cell phones on them. The survivors were bussed to a local Holiday Inn to wait for relatives, and relatives were instructed to go to that same place to reunite. Employees were NOT allowed to go back for their phones or even their cars since the entire facility, including the parking lot, was one huge crime scene. Veteran police said it was the biggest investigation they have ever seen.
I went to bed with the news last night and got up to it again this morning. Not much had changed since bedtime. (At least not much that was made public.) The dead hadn't all been identified or even removed from the facility. The media was interviewing anyone they could grab, although for the first time in awhile, I was pleased to see they kept their distance.
Here is where my heart broke: One older woman had gathered at that Holiday Inn to try to get information about her husband who hadn't come home from his job at FedEx last night. She was masked and wasn't hysterical or even seemingly emotional. She was very concerned and hopeful. She carried a picture of her 74-year-old spouse. She didn't talk much. She was just worried about her husband of 50 years...and she wasn't getting any quick answers. At the end of the day, she was still waiting for news and growing more upset. And then, finally, all of the victims were identified and the names released. Her husband was one of them. His name is John Weisert.
I have no idea who John Weisert is or why he was still working at his age. I only know that he was married to the same woman for 50 years. He was surely a father and grandfather. Maybe even a great-grandfather. He went to work and never came home. Work all your life and get taken out in an instant by a baby-faced kid who wanted to commit suicide? He didn't deserve this end to his life.
I'm his age. I can't/don't work any more. I'm not married but I sure admire couples that stay together through thick and thin. I pray for Mrs. Weisert and for all of the families of the victims as well as the shooter's parents who wanted so much to get help for their son. My heart is broken for all of them, but even more for the rest of us that these things continue to happen in the "land of the free and the home of the brave". Something is really, really wrong. I hope I die before the USA implodes. It's all so sad.
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