Murder Ranks 2nd as Cause of Postal Workers’ On-Job Deaths

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last year found that murder was the second leading cause of death on the job for postal workers, and third for all workers. Some attacks at post offices:

March 21, 1995: Christopher Green, 29, a former postal worker burdened with “a mountain of debt,” kills four people and wounds another during a holdup at the Montclair, N.J., post office.

Nov. 14, 1991: Fired postal worker Thomas McIlvane kills four supervisors and wounds five employees at his former post office in Royal Oak, Mich., then kills himself.

Oct. 10, 1991: Joseph M. Harris, a fired postal worker, kills a former supervisor and her boyfriend at their home, then goes to the Ridgewood, N.J., post office and kills two mail handlers. He surrenders after a 4 1/2-hour standoff.

Aug. 10, 1989: Postal worker John Merlin Taylor shoots and kills his wife at their home, then drives to an Escondido, Calif., post office, where he shoots and kills two colleagues and wounds another before killing himself.

Aug. 20, 1986: Patrick Henry Sherrill, a part-time letter carrier in Edmond, Okla., kills 14 people in the post office there before taking his own life. Sherrill, who had a history of work problems, faced the possibility of being fired.