December 02, 2011

Officials: Postal worker fired shots in mail room

The man accused of firing shots inside the main post office in Alabama's capital city was a postal employee

By Phillip Rawls and Jeff Martin
Associated Press

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A worker carried two guns into a mail processing room in a post office in Alabama's capital city at the beginning of his evening shift and fired several shots, sending co-workers scrambling but leaving no one hurt, officials said Friday.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, Clark Morris, said the man showed up for work and began firing shots about 6:30 p.m. Thursday in Montgomery.

No one was injured. Police took the man into custody within 10 minutes of getting a 911 call from the post office. Federal and local officials said it's unclear what the suspect's motive may have been and whether he was trying to hit anyone.

Officials said the man is being held in the Montgomery city jail pending charges. He was described as being in his late 20s or early 30s. Officials initially said he had three guns but later said he had two.

"The best news is that nobody was hurt and the local police responded quickly," Postal Service spokesman Tony Robinson said Friday. "Management quickly had the building evacuated, which helped minimize the potential threat to the people."

The 911 call came in at 6:38 p.m. and large numbers of officers were able to respond rapidly because they were on holiday patrols at a nearby mall and shopping centers, Montgomery Police Chief Kevin Murphy said.

Robinson said authorities planned to check Friday whether video surveillance captured the gunfire.

The post office, located on Montgomery's east side near Auburn University Montgomery, reopened Friday morning with counselors available to talk to employees, Robinson said.