Postal worker charged with attempted murder after shooting 2 co-workers at Des Moines post office, police say

By Andy Rose, Elizabeth Wolfe, Isa Mudannayake, CNN

(CNN) — Investigators are still searching for a motive after a US Postal Service employee was charged with attempted murder in the shooting of two of her co-workers Thursday at a large post office near downtown Des Moines, police said.

A third person – also a Postal Service employee – was hurt while trying to flee the shooting, Des Moines police Sgt. Paul Parizek told reporters.

All three injured employees are expected to survive, Parizek said. He declined to identify them or provide further details about their injuries.

The suspect, Jennifer Christine Pledger, 39, of Des Moines, is accused of shooting at a group of her co-workers on the second floor of the building, an area not open to the public, shortly after 9 a.m. local time, according to police.

Pledger made her first court appearance Friday morning and is being held without bond, court records show.

She has been charged with two counts of attempted murder, two counts of willful injury causing serious injury and a count of intimidation with a dangerous weapon – all felonies, according to police. Pledger is being held at the Polk County Jail.

CNN has reached out to the Polk County Public Defender’s Office for comment.

The shooting broke out during a morning huddle of about 20 to 30 employees, according to the president of the local American Postal Workers Union, Mike Bates, who spoke with CNN affiliate KCCI.

“Three officers arrived on scene within the first minute of the phone call to 911,” Des Moines Police Chief Michael McTaggart said Friday during a news conference.

Witnesses told investigators Pledger shot one victim, who fell to the ground, police said in a news release.

“Pledger then approached that victim, stood over her, and fired again,” police said.

She then resumed shooting toward other workers as they fled, witnesses told police.

“There are hundreds of employees that work at that postal building,” said McTaggart. “They and their families are dealing with this right now, and they are in our thoughts all day, every day, as we investigate this incident.”

Pledger was taken into custody outside the building by responding parole and probation officers, Parizek said. A 9 mm handgun was also found at the scene, he said.

In 2021 and 2022 – the most recent years available – there were more than 57,000 nonfatal cases of workplace violence, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. That year, Iowa’s incident rate was 2.3 cases per 10,000 full-time workers, slightly below the national average.

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 a gun on himself.

In this week’s attack in Iowa, two female postal employees, ages 45 and 53, were shot, and a 55-year-old male co-worker “had a fall injury as (he was) trying to get away from the situation inside the building,” Parizek said.

Although police have spoken to the suspect and seized evidence from her home, Parizek said Friday they still hadn’t learned any more information about a possible motive.

“Motive is tough because, unless somebody tells us why they did what they did, we may not ever really have a solid answer for that,” he said. “Right now, we don’t have any answers about what the motive was.”

Des Moines police are leading the investigation with the assistance of the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The Postal Service said its law enforcement arm, the US Postal Inspection Service, is also investigating. Agents from the ATF responded to the scene, the agency said.

“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.

Bates, who spoke to several union members who work in the building, stressed the importance of allowing employees enough time to recover after such a shocking incident.

“It could have been a lot worse, but the whole situation of that and living through that is what’s going to cause the most damage,” Bates told KCCI.

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.

“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 on 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 concerns about an employee’s behavior seriously, even when there is no 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.

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