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Postal killings in various countries resulted in fatalities that have occurred on the properties of postal systems or related issues/events. The main sections are divided by countries. Events are listed in chronological order.
A postmaster is the head of an individual post office, responsible for all postal activities in a specific post office. When a postmaster is responsible for an entire mail distribution organization, the title of Postmaster General is commonly used. Responsibilities of a postmaster typically include management of a centralized mail distribution facility, establishment of letter carrier routes, supervision of letter carriers and clerks, and enforcement of the organization's rules and procedures. The postmaster is the representative of the Postmaster General in that post office.
The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U.S., its insular areas, and its associated states. It is one of the few government agencies explicitly authorized by the Constitution of the United States. As of 2023, the USPS has 525,469 career employees and 114,623 non-career employees.
Going postal is an American English slang phrase referring to becoming extremely and uncontrollably angry, often to the point of violence, and usually in a workplace environment. The expression derives from a series of incidents from 1986 onward in which United States Postal Service (USPS) workers shot and killed managers, fellow workers, police officers and members of the general public in acts of mass murder. Between 1970 and 1997, more than 40 people were killed by then-current or former employees in at least 20 incidents of workplace rage. Between 1986 and 2011, workplace shootings happened roughly twice per year, with an average of 1.18 people killed per year.
The National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) is an American labor union, representing non-rural letter carriers employed by the United States Postal Service. It was founded in 1889. The NALC has 2,500 local branches representing letter carriers in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam.
John E. "Jack" Potter is the president and CEO of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority since July 18, 2011. He is the former United States Postmaster General and CEO of the United States Postal Service (USPS), having become the 72nd postmaster general on June 1, 2001. Potter is the second longest-serving postmaster general, following Gideon Granger.
Workplace violence, violence in the workplace, or occupational violence refers to violence, usually in the form of physical abuse or threat, that creates a risk to the health and safety of an employee or multiple employees. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health defines worker on worker, personal relationship, customer/client, and criminal intent all as categories of violence in the workplace. These four categories are further broken down into three levels: Level one displays early warning signs of violence, Level two is slightly more violent, and level three is significantly violent. Many workplaces have initiated programs and protocols to protect their workers as the Occupational Health Act of 1970 states that employers must provide an environment in which employees are free of harm or harmful conditions.
The Goleta postal facility shootings were a spree killing perpetrated by Jennifer San Marco on January 30, 2006. San Marco, a former United States Postal Service employee, shot and killed six people in Goleta, California, before taking her own life. Prior to the Goleta shooting, she shot and killed a former neighbor in nearby Santa Barbara.
The National Rural Letter Carriers' Association (NRLCA) is an American labor union that represents the rural letter carriers of the United States Postal Service (USPS). The NRLCA negotiates all labor agreements for the rural carrier craft with the USPS, including salaries, and represents members of the rural carrier craft in the grievance procedure. The NRLCA's stated goal is to "improve the methods used by rural letter carriers, to benefit their conditions of labor with the United States Postal Service, and to promote a fraternal spirit among its members."
The Lockheed Martin shooting occurred on July 8, 2003, at the Lockheed Martin plant in Meridian, Mississippi. The gunman, Douglas Williams, an assembly line worker at the plant, shot 14 of his co-workers with a shotgun, killing six of them, before committing suicide. After the shooting, information surfaced depicting Williams' history of making threats and racist comments directed at African-American coworkers. Five of the six killed in the incident were black.
The Edmond post office shooting was a mass shooting that occurred in Edmond, Oklahoma, on August 20, 1986. In less than fifteen minutes, 44 year-old postal worker Patrick Sherrill pursued and shot several coworkers, killing 14 and injuring another six, before committing suicide. It is currently the deadliest workplace shooting in U.S. history, as well as the deadliest shooting by a lone gunman in the state of Oklahoma.
Murder By Proxy: How America Went Postal is a 2010 American documentary film that examines the phenomenon of spree killing, particularly in a workplace, that became known in the United States as "going postal".
On August 24, 2012, a gunman shot and killed a former co-worker outside the Empire State Building in New York City. Following the initial shooting, the gunman, 58-year-old Jeffrey T. Johnson, was fatally shot by police officers after raising his weapon at them. Nine bystanders were wounded by stray bullets fired by the officers and ricocheting debris, but none suffered life-threatening injuries.
A mass shooting occurred at a firm in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on the afternoon of September 27, 2012. The attack took place inside Accent Signage Systems, where a former employee walked into the firm's building and fired a Glock 19 9mm pistol. By the end of the day, five people were dead, including the gunman who committed suicide, and four others were injured, three of them critically. One of those critically injured died the following day, and another man succumbed to his wounds on October 10. It was the deadliest workplace shooting in Minnesota's history.
The 2014 Montgomery County shootings were a killing spree that occurred in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States, on December 15, 2014. The killings began at about 3:30 a.m. A woman was found dead in Lower Salford Township, two others were found dead in Lansdale, and three more were found in Souderton along with a wounded teenage boy. Police identified the suspected killer as 35-year-old Bradley William Stone of Pennsburg, Pennsylvania, and the victims were his ex-wife and her family members. Most of the victims were shot, although some were also stabbed with a knife. After an extensive manhunt, Stone was found dead on the day after the killings in the woods near his home. He reportedly committed suicide by overdosing on several drugs.
Melcroft is an unincorporated community in Saltlick Township in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, United States. The community is located along state routes 381 and 711, 10.9 miles (17.5 km) east-northeast of Connellsville. Melcroft has a post office, with ZIP code 15462, which opened on September 13, 1918.
On June 14, 2017, 38-year-old Jimmy Lam fatally shot three coworkers at a United Parcel Service (UPS) facility in the Potrero Hill neighborhood of San Francisco, California, United States. Lam then shot and killed himself as police arrived at the facility. Two others were wounded by gunfire, and three people were injured while escaping.
On February 2, 2021, a shootout occurred between David Lee Huber and several agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) at an apartment complex in Sunrise, Florida, United States. At the time, the agents were serving a warrant on Huber related to a child pornography case. Two FBI agents were fatally shot and three others were injured. Huber was later found dead after barricading himself inside the apartment. The incident was one of the deadliest in the FBI's history.
The 1996 Jackson firehouse shooting was a mass murder that took place on April 25, 1996, at a firehouse in Jackson, Mississippi in the United States. Firefighter Kenneth Tornes fatally shot four of his supervisors, after killing his wife earlier that day.
On November 14, 1991, a mass shooting occurred at the United States Post Office in Royal Oak, Michigan, United States. In the incident, a disgruntled former postal worker, identified as 31-year-old Thomas McIlvane, shot and killed four post office employees before committing suicide.
The Fresno meat plant shooting was a mass shooting that occurred on the morning of November 6, 2012, at the Valley Protein meat processing plant in central Fresno, California. Lawrence Nathaniel Jones, a 42-year-old employee, shot four of his coworkers with a stolen handgun, killing two. He then reloaded his weapon as he walked outside, where he shot himself in the head. He was pronounced dead at the hospital three hours later.