Postal Worker Suspected of Threats Placed on Leave : Workplace: Officials want to know if an employee was making threats when he allegedly referred to last year’s shooting rampage by a latter carrier in Escondido.

A San Marcos letter carrier has been placed on leave after a weekend incident in which he allegedly threatened fellow employees by making a reference to last summer’s shooting rampage by a mailman in Escondido, postal officials said Wednesday.

“I’m not sure he threatened anybody’s life, to be honest with you,” said Neil Kruck, the San Marcos postmaster. “But everybody’s a little jumpy after that thing in Escondido.”

On Aug. 10, letter carrier John Merlin Taylor killed his wife, then drove to the Orange Glen substation and murdered two co-workers before turning the gun on himself. Taylor’s death was one of eight postal-related suicides or murders in San Diego County in 1989, according to testimony in a congressional hearing last month in San Diego .

Kruck said the name of the letter carrier has not been divulged, and the man, who is in his late 30s and has a family, is “freaked out” that word of the incident ever reached the media. Kruck described him as a postal employee of long standing, with a good record. He said the man has been ordered not to give interviews.

Kruck said the incident began Saturday morning at the San Marcos post office in the 400 block of North Twin Oaks Valley Road. He said fellow employees began heckling the man and it “accelerated to where he got upset at the things being said and then made this remark.”

Kruck said he did not know the exact wording of what the man said, “but some people seemed to think he had threatened their lives. That’s what we’re trying to determine right now.”

Kruck said that, when the man reported to work Monday morning, he was searched for weapons by two agents of the Postal Inspection Service, “who immediately began an investigation.” He said the man was sent home on administrative leave, meaning that he will be paid pending the outcome of the inquiry.

“If this had happened a year ago, nothing would have happened,” Kruck said. “But everyone is real jumpy and anxious nowadays because of all that’s been happening around here. I’m not real close with this carrier, but he’s never caused problems in the past. He is not someone with a history of disciplinary problems. And, as far as being teased, he does seem to dish it out as well as he takes it.”

Kruck said any employee making a direct threat to a co-worker can be fired immediately, “but I don’t believe this falls within that category.”

Mike Cannone, spokesman for San Diego County Postmaster Margaret Sellers, said three employees of the San Marcos post office called postal headquarters on Midway Drive Saturday to complain about the incident. Cannone said those who called reported the man threatened them “by alluding to the Taylor killings.” Cannone said he had not heard an exact quote of what the man said.

“I’ve been hearing that the man was disciplined, but that simply isn’t true,” Cannone said. “He’s on paid leave, but coincidentally, he had a three-week vacation coming up anyway, so he might not be back at work for at least another month.”

Representatives of the National Assn. of Letter Carriers in Escondido declined comment.