Clerk Wounds Ex-Wife, Friend in Post Office, Then Kills Self

A postal clerk left his counter to get a gun from his car Tuesday, then walked back in and critically wounded his ex-wife and her friend as the two women waited in line.

After shooting each woman once in the chest, the clerk walked outside and fatally shot himself.

“He exited the post office, went to a tree, looked up in the air and shot himself in the face,” police spokesman Bobby Hernandez said.

The women were in critical condition after surgery at Jackson Memorial Hospital, said spokeswoman Lorraine Nelson.

A witness, Amy Reed, said she saw people fleeing the post office as the shooting occurred.

“Dogs were barking, people were screaming and running towards me,” she said.

The gunman was a longtime counter clerk at the post office, said a witness who had gone to check on her mail. “I have known him for a long time, and he has been nice,” said Judy Rivas. “I even smiled at him as he walked behind me.”

The U.S. Postal Service identified the gunman as 64-year-old Jesus Antonio Tamayo and said he had worked for the Postal Service for 21 years.

When he saw the two women walk in about 1 p.m., Tamayo went outside to his car and returned a few minutes later with a gun, Hernandez said.

“As soon as they walked in, they saw him leave through the back,” he said. “Then he came back in through the front doors and shot them.”

Hernandez said Tamayo had divorced Manuela Acosta, 62, four years ago. She and the other victim, Mirna Mendoza, 55, shared an apartment in Ocean Beach, a few blocks from the post office.

“This appears to be a domestic incident,” Postal Inspector-in-Charge Mark Grey said in a statement.

No details of the nature of any domestic dispute were available.

Witnesses quoted on initial television reports had said two women in line were complaining about slow service. Police never confirmed those reports.

The post office is only a few blocks from the seaside mansion where designer Gianni Versace was shot to death in July. Andrew Cunanan, who had been linked to killings in three other states, was later found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.