news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060201/ap_on_re_us/post_office_shooting
The sixth employee, who had been hospitalized in critical condition, died Wednesday morning. A possible seventh victim was found dead Tuesday from a gunshot wound to the head at a Santa Barbara condominium complex where the shooter, former postal employee Jennifer Sanmarco, once lived, said Lt. Jeff Klapakis, of the Santa Barbara County sheriff's department. Klapakis said the victim, identified by her brother as Beverly Graham, 54, died on Monday. "We are investigating it as being the beginning of this rampage," said sheriff's Sgt. Raney said a neighbor reported hearing a gunshot about 8:20 pm Monday. About half an hour later, authorities said, Sanmarco fatally shot six postal employees at the Goleta mail processing plant before committing suicide in what is believed to be the deadliest workplace shooting by a woman. US Postal Inspector Randy DeGasperin said "chances are" she knew the people she was shooting. DeGasperin said Sanmarco had left the mail facility on a medical leave in 2003 after her co-workers expressed concerns she might hurt herself. "She was not making any threats or anything of that nature," DeGasperin said. Interviews with authorities in this picturesque coastal community and with people in New Mexico, where Sanmarco moved in 2004, paint a picture of a woman who exhibited increasingly bizarre behavior after losing her job. "We weren't sure what she was going to do next," said Terri Gallegos, deputy clerk for the city of Milan, NM, where Sanmarco applied for a business license in 2004 for a publication called "The Racist Press" that she said she planned to launch. Another time she said she wanted to register a cat food business. During one meeting, Gallegos said, Sanmarco carried on a conversation with herself "like she was arguing with someone but there was no one there." Last March, office workers called authorities after the 44-year-old woman made what Gallegos described as a rude allegation. Other times, Gallegos said, Sanmarco would come in and simply stare at one employee in particular. In June, police in nearby Grants talked to her after someone at a gas station called to complain of nudity, Police Chief Marty Vigil said. Graham had also noticed unusual behavior, her brother Les Graham told The Associated Press. He said his sister had complained about a woman who "used to come out and rant and rave in front of her building." The family suspects that Sanmarco was the neighbor and his sister's killer, he said. Monday night, Sanmarco entered the sprawling Santa Barbara Processing and Distribution Center by driving through a gate behind another car, police said. She gained entry to the building by taking an employee's identification badge at gunpoint. Only about 80 of the approximately 300 people who work at the mail-sorting center were there when Sanmarco arrived. "According to witnesses from the scene, she had a 9 mm pistol and reloaded at least once during her rampage," said Santa Barbara County Sheriff James Anderson. Killed were Ze Fairchild, 37, and Maleka Higgins, 28, both of Santa Barbara; Nicola Grant, 42, and Guadalupe Swartz, 52, both of Lompoc; Charlotte Colton, 44, of Santa Barbara died of her injuries Wednesday morning, said Teresa Rounds, spokeswoman for Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital. There was not a moment she was quiet," colleague and friend Lexi Bushnell told the Santa Barbara News-Press. Swartz was emerging from a dark period after losing her husband, Donald, three years ago to cancer, according to friend Darlene Skura. "She was becoming more active, starting to get on with her life," Skura told the Los Angeles Times in Wednesday's editions. Grant's neighbors said it was not uncommon to see the married mother of two shooting hoops with her children. "She was such a joy," said friend and neighbor Leslie Brown. James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University, said he believed it might be the deadliest workplace shooting ever 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 are more prone to use violence in seeking revenge while "women tend to view murder as a last resort," he said.
United States Postal Inspection Service Inspector Randy DeGasperin, right, and Santa Barbara County Sheriff Jim Anderson answer questions at a news conference held at the scene of an investigation where a former employee shot several workers at a United States Postal Service distribution center Tuesday, Jan.
The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
|
http://csua.com/feed/