Tearful Employees Recall Deadly Attack

Computer programmer Rick Woodman will remember the way the gunfire sounded for the rest of his life. Not the way he expected. At first, he thought it was a nail gun.

Then, as the reports continued, one after another, he realized what it was. He heard screaming from the first floor of Postal Innovations and realized it was receptionist Sandy Strecker.

He ran from his office on the second floor and scrambled down a stairway to find his boss face down in blood. In another pool of blood nearby lay Mikhail Khaimchayev, a former employee who had been laid off months before.

“I asked him, ‘Why? Why did you shoot Sheldon?’ ” said Woodman, tears coming to his eyes as he recalled the scene Thursday.

“ ‘Because he would not give me work,’ ” Khaimchayev replied, according to Woodman.

The day after Sheldon Snyder, 36, was shot to death, employees gathered to share memories of the shooting, of the man who died and of the mild-mannered guy accused of killing him.

While Khaimchayev lies in a hospital bed in Oxnard recovering from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities have arrested him on suspicion of murder, sheriff’s Capt. Keith Parks said. Investigators also served a search warrant on the West Hollywood home that Khaimchayev shares with his father, Yuri Khaimchayev.

Snyder was part owner of the 2-year-old computer software firm. Steve Simone, president and 80% owner of the firm, said he worked with Snyder for 15 years.

“He was my brother, actually,” said Simone, pausing periodically to compose himself.

And Snyder was the one given the task of telling Khaimchayev that the firm no longer needed him. Khaimchayev was hired last year as a 90-day contract employee but never measured up.

Co-workers said he knew very little about computers.

“He barely knew how to turn on a computer,” said intern George Kimbro.

Khaimchayev, a Russian immigrant, could not speak English very well.

“His accent was so strong, it was very difficult to understand him,” Simone said.

And so, despite his polite demeanor and apparent willingness to work, Snyder let him go. That was eight months ago.

In the succeeding months, Khaimchayev continued to call the office asking for work. One supervisor told him that he needed to improve his English skills.

But when Postal put ads in the paper looking for new programmers recently, Khaimchayev tried again and was turned down again.

“I think he took it as a personal affront from Sheldon. He blamed it on him that he couldn’t get work,” Woodman said.

In the hours before the shooting, Khaimchayev called Postal Innovations and asked if Snyder was working, employees said. Yes, he was told, Snyder would be in all day.

Strecker said she didn’t see a gun when Khaimchayev walked into the office just after 2 p.m. She wasn’t particularly concerned.

“It was a little unusual to see him there,” Strecker said. “But I didn’t think anything of it at the time.”

Always polite, he greeted Strecker with a smile and asked her how she was doing.

“I said, ‘I’m fine, how are you?’ ” Strecker said.

He didn’t reply. Instead, he walked to Snyder’s office just a few feet away.