After a significant drop in mass shootings in the United States during a 2020 pandemic hit, there have been several fatalities this year.
Indianapolis police say eight people were shot and killed during a shooting late Thursday at a FedEx facility. The shooter also committed suicide.
It follows a pause in mass killings during the 2020 pandemic, which has had the smallest number of such attacks in more than a decade, according to a database from The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University. That database keeps track of mass murders defined as four or more deaths, not counting the shooter.
President Joe Biden announced half a dozen executive actions last week to combat what he called an “epidemic and international embarrassment” of gun violence in America. But he said much more is needed.
Here are a few recent mass shootings.
ATLANTA
Eight people were killed by a gunman in three massage stores in Atlanta in attacks that began the evening of March 16. Seven of those killed were women and six were of Asian descent. Police charged a 21-year-old white man in the murders. There was deep skepticism about the shooter’s claim that his motive was sex addiction. There have been public calls for hate crime charges, especially among the Asian-American community, which has faced an increasing number of attacks since the coronavirus pandemic.
BOULDER, COLORADO
About a week later, on March 22, a gunman at a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado, killed ten peopleincluding a police officer who was the first to respond to the scene. After a background check, the suspect bought a firearm from a local gun store. Investigators are working to determine the motive for the shooting and why the suspect chose the King Soopers supermarket.
ORANGE, CALIFORNIA
On March 31, a gunman killed four people and seriously injured a fifth in an office building in Southern CaliforniaHe knew all the victims. Apparently before opening fire, he closed the gates of two entrances, preventing the police from entering. Among the victims was a 9-year-old boy who was found cradled in the arms of a woman believed to be his mother. The woman was the sole survivor among those shot. The others who were killed were a man and two women.
ROCK HILL, SOUTH CAROLINA
A week later, on April 7, former NFL player Phillip Adams fired six people. Robert Lesslie, a prominent physician, was murdered along with his wife, two of their grandchildren and two air-conditioning technicians working at their home. Adams also committed suicide. His brain is now being examined for potential degenerative diseases that have been shown to cause violent mood swings and other cognitive disorders in some athletes and military personnel.
This story has been updated to correct that the Gun Violence Archive has not recorded a decline in mass shootings – including non-fatal shootings – between 2019 and 2020. It did register a drop in what it calls mass killings.