Two USPS workers killed by co-worker at Memphis mail facility, officials say
Two postal workers were killed in a shooting at a U.S. Postal Service facility in Memphis on Tuesday, according to Postal Inspection Service, the mail agencys law enforcement arm. The shooter also died.
An assistant mail carrier retrieved a firearm from his car in the East Lamar Carrier Annex and returned to the building, shooting his manager and a plant supervisor before shooting himself, according to a U.S. Postal Inspection Service official and a postal union official, both of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation.
The Memphis Police Department said late Tuesday afternoon that there were "no active threats" in the area.
An FBI spokeswoman told the Memphis Commercial Appeal that the shooter was a Postal Service employee.
An Inspection Service statement said the agency was working with the Memphis Police Department, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to investigate the shooting. Postal Service spokeswoman Kimberly Frum said in an emailed statement that the mail service was "saddened at the events that took place today in Memphis. Our thoughts are with the family members, friends and co-workers of the individuals involved."
The agency will provide mental health resources to employees at the annex, a staff-only mail-sorting and distribution facility, in coming days, Frum said.
Authorities did not identify the victims or the shooter, but Memphis-area resident Roxanne Rogers identified her cousin James Wilson as one of the victims, according to the Commercial Appeal.
"He was a good man. An outstanding man," Rogers told the newspaper. "The best man you'd ever want to be around."
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said Tuesday night that she was "saddened by the loss of life" in the attack.
Postal shootings during the 1980s and '90s gave rise to the slang "going postal" to describe homicides committed by current or former mail service employees. News media often falsely ascribed long hours and intense work for driving employees to violence.
Postal Service workers, and the agency's unions, bristle at the term and instead commend the agency for its workplace protections. The Postal Service commissioned a report in 2000, led by former Carter administration Cabinet official Joseph Califano Jr., that found that "'going postal' is a myth, a bad rap."
"Postal workers are no more likely to physically assault, sexually harass, or verbally abuse their co-workers than employees in the national workforce," the report stated.
Tuesday's shooting at the annex in the Orange Mound neighborhood comes less than a month after a shooting at a grocery store killed one person and injured 15 in the Memphis suburb of Collierville. The gunman in that attack fatally shot himself, police said.