Postal worker accused of shooting 2 co-workers at Des Moines post office, police say

By Andy Rose, CNN

(CNN) — A US Postal Service employee is in custody on suspicion of shooting two of her co-workers at a large post office near downtown Des Moines, Iowa, on Thursday morning, police said.

A third injured person – also a Postal Service employee – was hurt while trying to flee the shooting, which was reported on the second floor of the multistory facility around 9:10 a.m. CT, Des Moines police Sgt. Paul Parizek told reporters.

All three injured – two women and a man – were being treated at a hospital, and all injuries are believed to be non-life-threatening, Parizek said.

The suspect, a woman who works for the Postal Service, was taken into custody just outside of the building, Parizek said. The shooting took place in a non-public part of the facility, he said.

Besides the two postal employees who were shot, a third “had a fall injury as trying to get away from the situation inside the building,” Parizek said. The names of the suspect and the injured and details about what led to the shooting were not immediately released.

“A lot of questions came in about what the suspect’s motive was. We don’t have any information on that right now,” Parizek said.

The Postal Service said its law enforcement arm, the US Postal Inspection Service, is also investigating.

“At this time, there is no ongoing risk to the public and no further details can be provided while this is an ongoing investigation,” the Postal Inspection Service said in a release.

A rash of violent incidents involving postal employees during the 1980s and 1990s gave rise to “going postal” as a slang term for mass violence in the workplace. The deadliest incident was in 1986, when Patrick Henry Sherrill used three handguns to kill 14 co-workers at a post office in Edmond, Oklahoma, before turning the gun on himself.

Emergency responders in tactical helmets were seen at the post office Thursday along with more than a dozen law enforcement vehicles, video from CNN affiliate WOI showed.

The facility is just north of downtown Des Moines, about a mile from the state Capitol building.

Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were responding to the incident, the agency said.

“My prayers are with the victims, their families, and everyone impacted by this tragedy,” US Rep. Zach Nunn, whose district includes Des Moines, posted to Facebook Thursday. “Grateful to the law enforcement officers and first responders on the scene.”

Last month, the National Threat Assessment Center of the US Secret Service released a study of workplace violence incidents. It recommended employers take it seriously when concern is raised about an employee’s behavior, even when there is not a direct threat of physical harm.

“It is essential for organizations to maintain a low threshold of concern for initiating a behavioral threat assessment and not limit their focus solely to explicit threats of violence,” the report stated. Authorities haven’t said whether any concerns had been raised at the Des Moines facility before Thursday’s shooting.

This story has been updated with additional information.

CNN’s Chris Boyette, Kara Devlin, Vivian Phillips, Holmes Lybrand and Jeff Zeleny contributed to this report.

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