Disgruntled Postman Goes on Shooting Spree; 3 Slain : Escondido Gunman Is Brain Dead

A disgruntled mailman today shot his wife to death, then drove to a nearby post office in Escondido and opened fire on fellow employees, killing two and wounding a third before putting the gun to his head and shooting himself.

The rampage, which began at 7:30 a.m. on East Valley Parkway on the eastern edge of the northern San Diego County city, left postal workers scrambling for safety. When the gunfire subsided, survivors were seen exchanging hugs and crying quietly.

Police said the gunman, identified as John Merlin Taylor, 52, of Escondido, apparently was prepared for a siege of the postal facility, but there was no indication that he was looking for a specific person or a target.

“He fired well over a dozen rounds, and there are expended cases all over the floor there,” Escondido Police Lt. Earl Callander said. “There is also a box of about 100 rounds that apparently was going to be used for reloading.”

Taylor was taken to nearby Palomar Memorial Hospital, where he was placed on a life support system and declared brain-dead shortly after 10 a.m.

U.S. Postal Service spokesman Ken Boyd said Taylor had been a letter carrier for 25 years and was nearing retirement. Taylor’s boss described him as a model employee, “as mellow and

Increasing Pressure

Police said they knew of no motive for the shootings and believed that the victims were shot randomly, but co-workers said Taylor had succumbed to increasing pressure at work.

Two days ago, co-worker Johnny Sims recalled having a discussion with Taylor in which the mailman mentioned the 1986 shooting rampage at the post office in Edmond, Okla.

“I think what may have happened is that we were talking about that thing that happened at the Oklahoma post office,” said Sims, who was not at work when the Escondido shooting erupted.

“We were talking about something and got around to saying, ‘What if something happened to one of the employees that would have gotten him mad and to go berserk?’ ” Sims added. “We were just joking around.”

The Edmond shootings, which stunned the nation and is still much talked about by postal workers who feel that the U.S. Postal Service is insensitive to its employees, occurred when part-time mail carrier Patrick Sherrill massacred 14 co-workers, wounded six others and then committed suicide. Sherrill apparently had been seeking revenge on his bosses.

Another co-worker, who declined to be identified, said he saw Taylor leave work Wednesday night. He said Taylor seemed upset at the huge volume of mail he was supposed to process.

“He said he was going home early because ‘there’s not enough mail here,’ ” the co-worker said, adding that Taylor’s remark was clearly facetious because “there was a ton of mail there.”

The same co-worker described Taylor was a “mellow, easygoing guy” who would routinely get to work half an hour early and join two other employees on a picnic table next to the loading dock for coffee each morning.

At 7:35 a.m., however, Taylor arrived at work and approached the same picnic table and shot the two co-workers with a .22-caliber semiautomatic handgun, killing both, police said. The names of the victims were not immediately released by police.

Escondido Police Sgt. Blaine Bennett said Taylor then walked inside the back of the post office and shot a co-worker through the arm. The victim, identified as Paul Michael DeRisi, was taken to Palomar Memorial Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition.

Bennett said another co-worker, Phyllis DeVito, injured herself when she fell during a mad scramble to flee the building. DeVito also was taken to the hospital but was expected to be released this afternoon.

Post office manager Bob Henley said he was in his office when he heard shots and saw one employee bleeding from the shoulder.

Henly said he saw Taylor walk toward him and then point a gun his way.

He said Taylor told him: “I’m not going to shoot you” and then fired in another direction. Henley said he “went back in and closed my office door, and I called 911.”

Postal worker Reginald Keith said he was in a custodial room when he heard the shots.

William Karlson, who saw Taylor walking inside the building, recalled: “He didn’t have any emotion. He was stern-faced. He walked right by me. He was walking toward the end of the building with the gun in his hand.”

About the same time that the shootings occurred, police received a call to go to Taylor’s residence several blocks away.

Escondidio Police Chief Vincent Jimno said that Taylor’s wife, Liz, was found lying in bed with her clothes on and that the covers had been pulled halfway up as though she had been asleep. There were initial fears that Taylor might also have shot his son, but a check of his home revealed that the boy was safe.