After Indianapolis FedEx shooting, employees are still waiting to reunite with family because FedEx restricts cell phone use at its facilities, police say

Hours after a gunman opened fire in an Indianapolis FedEx facility, family members of employees at the facility were still corralled at a nearby Holiday Inn, waiting to hear from their loved ones.

Some families were still trying to contact employees as recently as 9 a.m. ET, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department told CNN on Friday.

Deputy Chief Craig McCartt said the FedEx workers were hard to reach because many of them didn’t have cell phones with them in the facility.

“It’s certainly been a night of frustration and uncertainty for those families,” McCartt told CNN on Friday.

FedEx confirmed to CNN that cell phone use is prohibited among many employees.

“To minimize potential distractions around package sortation equipment and dock operations, cell phone access within certain areas of FedEx Ground field operations is limited to authorized team members,” a FedEx spokesperson told CNN on Friday.

Eight FedEx employees were killed in the shooting on Thursday night, which police said lasted between one to two minutes, and several more were injured. The motive of the gunman, who took his own life, is currently unknown.

Follow live updates: FedEx facility shooting kills 8

After the shooting, employees were either “transported to be interviewed” or taken to the Holiday Inn, where police established a family reunification site, the police said. But without their phones, they couldn’t contact their families to let them know where they were.

The scene is still considered active as families gradually reunite, police told CNN on Friday morning.