Post Office Massacre : 15 Dead After Okla. Mailman’s Three-Gun Rampage : He Faced Job Loss for Poor-Work Reprimand

A disgruntled mailman, reprimanded for poor job performance, burst into a post office and opened fire with three pistols today, killing 15 people and injuring seven others before he shot himself to death, authorities said.

The gunman, identified as former Marine Patrick Sherrill, 44, barged through the back door of the post office in a suburb north Oklahoma City at about 7 a.m., and employees “scattered like flies,” when he began shooting, a witness said.

Dist. Atty. Bob Macy said 14 people were killed inside the post office as Sherrill, a letter carrier, opened up with two automatic pistols. Another victim was found outside the building. Sherrill shot himself in the head about two hours later when police swarmed the building.

Sherrill had been told Tuesday by a supervisor he was going to lose his part-time job unless his work performance improved, Macy said.

3rd Worst Mass Murder

The slaying was the third worst mass murder by a lone gunman in U.S. history. The largest happened July 18, 1984, when James O. Huberty opened fire at the McDonald’s restaurant in San Ysidro, Calif., killing 21 people.

In 1966, 16 people were killed and 31 wounded in a rifle barrage from a University of Texas tower in Austin by Charles J. Whitman. Both Huberty and Whitman were killed at the scene by police.

Macy said of the shootings today inside the U.S. Postal Service building: “When he came in, (workers and customers) scattered like flies.”

“I just thought it was firecrackers going off,” said Vince Furlong, 32, another postal employee. “I hid and then I saw (the gunman) chasing a guy with a hole in his back and I saw Sherrill run by with a gun in his hand.”

Dived to the Floor

Furlong said he dived to the floor when the shooting started. “I saw one of my friends hit the ground and I saw another one of my friends run by with a bullet hole in his side--blood coming out his back.

“He just started shooting people. He shot the supervisor almost point-blank. He shot one of my best friends almost point-blank. And then he just turned around and started spraying the room.”

Furlong said most employees were hiding throughout the ordeal, “trying to find out where he was.”

Furlong said: “I knew him. I didn’t know him well. Nobody did, I don’t think. He was a loner. He just didn’t know how to carry mail. He just couldn’t get a handle on it. They chewed him out yesterday” because of his job performance.

80 in Building

There were about 80 postal workers in the building when the shooting started, and people “just started running,” said Ron Blackwell, a letter carrier.

Blackwell said that when the shooting began, “my first thought was that someone had dropped a tray. Then somebody said, ‘He’s got a gun’ and everyone started running out.”

Some of those who fled carried wounded co-workers to safety. “There were people coming out of every door they could come out of,” postal worker Clint Turner said.

“I saw a guy standing there with a bag on his shoulder and a pistol in his hand. That’s when I turned and ran,” Turner said. “You can bet I’ll be on my knees thanking my God tonight.”

Victims Scattered

Many of the victims were found in work areas or break rooms and another was found in the parking lot outside the building, Macy said.

“I’ve never seen a crime scene like this. I’ve never seen this volume,” he said.

The bodies of those killed in the massacre remained in the post office where authorities brought in relatives, one by one, to identify the dead. Cries of anguish could be heard coming from a makeshift waiting room. One woman was sedated and taken away in an ambulance.

Seven people were injured, six of them gunshot victims, hospital officials said.

Mercy Health Center spokeswoman Jill McDonald said Judy Walker, 40, of Edmond was in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the chest, and Joyce Ingram, 45, of Edmond--initially reported in critical condition--was in stable condition with a gunshot wound to the neck.

Condition Guarded

Listed in stable but guarded condition after undergoing surgery were Gene Bray, 54, of Oklahoma City, and Steve Vick, 24, of Edmond. McDonald said Bray was shot in the left flank and Vick was shot in the abdomen.

The other injuries were less serious.

One shot was heard after police arrived at the scene, “which might have been Sherrill shooting himself,” Edmond police Lt. Ron Cavin said.

Negotiators tried to contact Sherrill by telephone, but could not get an answer, he said.

Cavin said officers “had no choice” but to enter the downtown building about two hours after the 7 a.m. shooting spree began because they had no idea how many people remained inside and how many had been injured.

Was Marine Marksman

Macy said Sherrill served four years in the Marine Corps and was considered “an expert marksman” with a .45-caliber pistol, one of three weapons the gunman had in a bag when he entered through a back door.

The other two weapons were a 9-millimeter pistol and a .22-caliber pistol. Macy said the weapons were empty when police found them. He said he did not know if Sherrill had reloaded the weapons during the shooting, but no shots were fired by police.

Furlong said the man apparently locked all the back doors before starting the shooting spree.

Orson Cordis, of Guthrie, Okla., a letter carrier for nine years, said he saw the shooting start. “(Sherrill) was just pointing and shooting all around.”

He said Sherrill never talked during the incident.

Thought It Was Joke

“I just heard gunshots,” said Mike McMonigle, another postal employee who escaped injury in the shooting spree. “I thought it was a joke at first.”