http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/ap/2006/01/31/ap24
89362.html
Associated Press
Update 17: Seven Dead in Calif. Post Office Shooting
By TIM MOLLOY , 01.31.2006, 01:33 PM
A female ex-postal worker opened fire at a mail processing
plant, killing
six people and critically wounding another before committing
suicide in
what's believed to be the deadliest workplace shooting ever
carried out by a
woman.
The rampage, the first deadly shooting at a postal
installation in nearly
eight years, sent employees running Monday night from the
sprawling complex
and prompted authorities to warn nearby residents to stay
indoors as they
searched for a suspect.
Authorities responding to a report of shots fired at 9:15
p.m. found two
people dead outside the plant, blocks from University of
California, Santa
Barbara.
Two wounded women were found inside; one died and the other
was listed in
critical condition Tuesday with a gunshot wound to the head.
Nearly five hours after the two bodies were found, deputies
discovered four
additional bodies, including one believed to be the shooter.
The suspect,
who was not identified, died of an apparent self-inflicted
gunshot wound,
Santa Barbara County Sheriff Jim Anderson said.
It was the deadliest shooting at any workplace since 2003,
when 48-year-old
Doug Williams gunned down 14 co-workers, killing six, at a
Lockheed Martin
aircraft parts plant in Meridian, Miss., before turning the
gun on himself.
James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University
and an expert on
homicides, said he believed the death toll might be the
highest ever for any
workplace shooting carried out by a woman.
It also was the bloodiest at a Postal Service facility since
1986, when a
letter carrier killed 14 people in Edmond, Okla., and then
took his own
life. Postal facilities were the scene of a series of
high-profile shootings
in the mid-1980s and early '90s.
The last postal shooting was in 1998, when a 27-year-old
letter carrier
fatally shot a post office clerk in Dallas after they argued
in a break
room. He was found not guilty of murder by reason of
insanity.
The victims Monday night were believed to be employees of
the
200,000-square-foot Santa Barbara Processing and
Distribution Center,
Sheriff's Sgt. Erik Raney said. Their names were not
immediately released.
Postal employee Charles Kronick told KEYT-TV in Santa
Barbara that he was
inside the building when shots rang out.
"I heard something that sounded like a pop, and then I
heard a couple
seconds later, another pop, pop, pop," Kronick said.
Kronick said his boss came running over and told him to get
out of the
building. "We all hightailed it out real quick,"
he said.
Some 50 to 60 employees were seen running from the plant,
and many fled to a
fire station across the street, said Santa Barbara County
Fire Capt. Keith
Cullom.
Investigators didn't know how many guns were used, how the
shooter entered
the complex or what the motive might have been, Raney said.
Postmaster General John E. Potter said families of the
victims were being
notified and counselors would be available to the families
and employees at
the plant.
"Our heartfelt prayers and condolences go out to the
families of the victims
and to our employees who have suffered through this tragic
incident," Potter
said in a statement issued in Washington.
About 300 people are employed at the plant, located in a
picturesque area
about a mile from the ocean with a backdrop of mountains.
The plant is off a
quiet road connecting the student community of Isla Vista to
shopping areas
and the 101 Freeway. Goleta (pronounced go-LEE-tuh) is about
90 miles
northwest of Los Angeles.
Employees were told to report Tuesday to another processing
center in nearby
Oxnard.
"In the coming days we will work with postal officials
and law enforcement
officers to assist the families of the victims and employees
who have been
traumatized by this horrible event," William Burrus,
president of the
American Postal Workers Union, said in a statement.
Associated Press reporter Christina Almeida in Los Angeles
contributed to
this report.
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