http://news.yahoo.com/s/a...e_shooting


Six Dead in Calif. Post Office Shooting By TIM MOLLOY, Associated Press Writer
Tue Jan 31, 6:36 PM ET



GOLETA, Calif. - A former postal worker who had been put on medical leave for psychological problems shot five people to death at a huge mail-processing center and then killed herself in what was believed to be the nation's deadliest workplace shooting ever carried out by a woman.

The attack Monday night was also the biggest bloodbath at a U.S. postal installation since a massacre 20 years ago helped give rise to the term "going postal."

Investigators would not release the killer's name or discuss a motive for the attack.

The rampage — the nation's first deadly postal shooting in nearly eight years — sent employees running from the sprawling Southern California complex and prompted authorities to warn nearby residents to stay indoors as they searched for the killer.

The 44-year-old woman had not worked at the plant for more than two years but still managed to get inside the fenced and guarded Santa Barbara Processing and Distribution Center. She drove through a gate by following closely behind another car, then got in the front door by taking an employee's electronic identification badge at gunpoint, authorities said. The employee was not hurt, authorities said.

She opened fire with a 9 mm handgun, reloading at least once during the rampage, Santa Barbara County Sheriff Jim Anderson said.

Authorities found two people dead outside the plant, blocks from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Another body was just outside the door, and a wounded woman was just inside. Three more bodies — including that of the killer — were farther inside.

The wounded woman, Charlotte Colton, 44, was hospitalized in critical condition. She had been shot in the head.

All of the killer's victims were believed to be employees at the postal center.

Postal Inspector Randy DeGasperin said the woman had been placed on medical leave in 2003 for psychological reasons. He said she had been removed from the building by sheriff's deputies that year for acting strangely. She made no threats, but other workers were afraid she might hurt herself, authorities said.

DeGasperin said was unclear if she targeted certain people or fired at random, but "chances are she might have known her victims."

The sheriff said the woman's hair had been cut, and her appearance was different from when she worked at the plant. Her electronic pass card had been taken away when she stopped working at the facility, he said.

James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University in Boston and an expert on homicides, said the death toll might be the highest ever for any workplace shooting carried out by a woman.

"Men, more than women, tend to view their self-worth by what they do" at work, Fox said. Men also appear more prone to use violence in seeking revenge while "women tend to view murder as a last resort," he said.

As the shooting began, some of the 80 or so workers streamed out of the building. Some ran to a firehouse.

"I was dumping mail on a belt when the gunshots suddenly `boom, boom, boom, boom!'" said postal worker Alger Busante, 56. He rushed out of the building.

"It is really very shocking. This is a peaceful place," Busante said.

Postal employee Charles Kronick told KEYT-TV in Santa Barbara that he was inside the building when he heard shots. "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, and "we all hightailed it out real quick."

The dead were identified as Ze Fairchild, 37, Maleka Higgins, 28, Nicola Grant, 42, Guadalupe Swartz, 52, and Dexter Shannon, 57.

Postmaster General John E. Potter said counselors would be available to the families and employees. "Our heartfelt prayers and condolences go out to the families of the victims and to our employees who have suffered through this tragic incident," he said in a statement issued in Washington.

It was the deadliest shooting at any U.S. workplace since 2003, when 48-year-old Doug Williams gunned down 14 co-workers, killing six, and then committed suicide at a Lockheed Martin aircraft parts plant in Meridian, Miss.

It also was the bloodiest rampage at a U.S. postal installation since 1986, when a mailman killed 14 people in Edmond, Okla., and then took his own life. Postal installations were hit with a string of deadly shootings in the mid-1980s and early '90s.

The nation's 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. The gunman was found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity.

About 300 people are employed at the Goleta plant, situated about a mile from the ocean, with the mountains as a backdrop. But most of the employees were not on duty at the time of the shooting. Goleta (pronounced goh-LEE-tuh) is about 90 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

Employees were told to report Tuesday to another processing center in nearby Oxnard.

___

Associated Press writer Christina Almeida in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

nobody's responded to this yet?

AnckSuNamun said:

there's only been 2 other threads.

they think she killed her neighbor too, last i heard.

sinisterpentatonic said:

oh

sinisterpentatonic said:

I didn't know that

BlackBuddy said:

You're as slow as the mail.

Ya'll know it was a white person.

My father has worked at the Minneapolis post office for Twenty six years and I can tell you man he could tell you some STORIES!

DynamicSavior said:

Actually, she was Latina

BlackBuddy said:

Close enough. I knew it wasn't a black person.

DynamicSavior said:

yeah

DynamicSavior said:

I'm sure you thought the D.C. snipers weren't black either...

i was unaware that race played a factor in issues like this

nakedpianoplayer said:

co-sign...

SammiJ said:

double co-sign

nakedpianoplayer said:

[That's uncalled for snip - luv4u]

BlackBuddy said:

Hey, maybe the brother was having a bad day. Shit.

DynamicSavior said:

oh my god, they were on BET's WTF moments in black history

DynamicSavior said:

what about that guy that shot up 6 people in that restuarant in the south in the 90's...was he having a bad day too?

DynamicSavior said:

Easy...
don't go all postal on us.

AnckSuNamun said:

yeah, I have to admit I was shocked when I found out they were black. Even the newscasters were shocked. They swore it was a white male in his 30's

BlackBuddy said:

If any good could come out of this,
it's that the D.C. snipers contributed in the breaking down of race barriers(?).

Illustrator said:

DynamicSavior said:

ummmmm, im not "in your ass"

i was simply stating my opinion. that often happens in places like this. its called conversation. we share ideas, we share views.... surely you understand what im talking about.

dont think that i have time to follow you around to different threads and get in your ass as you put it, because, really, i could give a shit less what youre saying.... it just so happens that most of the time, what you say, is exactly the opposite of what i would say or think. THAT is what im commenting on, nothing more, nothing less.

DynamicSavior said:

yay!! now i'm circumsised!!!!

AnckSuNamun said:

DynamicSavior said:

nah bruh, that was a vasectomy!

nakedpianoplayer said:

Hence, you being up my ass. If you were a man, I wouldn't have a problem with it. But seeing as how you're not, and you being up there isn't helping me much, I'd rather you stay from up there. Okays? How about this....just disagree with me..QUIETLY. There you go. Another skill for a woman to learn. How to shut the fuck up.