Albuquerque postal service employee fires gun at work, arrested (video)


Albuquerque_POALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) — A U.S. Postal Service employee is in custody after bringing a gun to work and firing one shot.

It happened early Monday morning on Albuquerque’s main post office property at Broadway and Mountain.

No one was hurt in the shooting and it’s unclear what lead up to it, however, one employee who spoke to News 13 says says coworkers wrestled the man to the ground and called police.

“Thank God it happened when I wasn’t there,” said Gwen Forrester, an Albuquerque resident who was at the post office Monday afternoon.

“Why bring a gun to work?,” asked Albuquerque resident Jim King.

The Postal Inspection Service is now investigating what lead up to the shooting.

“Makes me uncomfortable,” said another post office customer, Rashad Jones.

“You know pretty soon people are not going to want to come in to the post office at all,” said Rush

Spokesman Ed Tejo told News 13 Monday that it happened inside of the Vehicle Maintenance Department’s building on the backside of the post office. The building serves as an auto shop for post office trucks.

Customers say the incident has many of the employees on the property talking.

“I walked up to my favorite clerk and she was like, ‘Oh my gosh, did you see the news this morning? What happened?’” said Jones, who learned about the shooting from employees inside.

APD responded to the post office property just before 6 a.m. Monday after two 9-1-1 calls. One call was for shots fired. The other call was for a disturbance between employees.

An APD spokesman says officers arrested one man who had a gun, but then turned the investigation over to the Feds.

Federal investigators with the Postal Inspection Service say the man who brought the gun to work is a mechanic in the vehicle maintenance department.

Investigators the man fired one shot but say at this point there’s “no evidence to suggest” that the man was targeting any other employees.

Employees could be seen working inside of the vehicle maintenance department Monday afternoon.

One employee who contacted News 13 on Monday says he saw it all happen and watched his co-workers wrestle the shooter to the ground when the gun was fired.

Customers say the news is disturbing.

“There’s some kind of an dynamic that’s happening within the U.S. Postal Service that leads people to that,” said Rush.

“I’m a native Albuquerqueian, I’ve lived many other places but I love Albuquerque and I hate to see it get so violent,” said Forrester.

The Feds still haven’t said if the man will be charged with any sort of crime for firing the gun. At a minimum, the Postal Inspection Service says the man could be charged with bringing a gun to a federal building. That could get him a year in prison.

Despite the investigation Monday morning, service was totally unaffected for customers at the post office on Broadway and Mountain.

via ABQ postal service employee fires gun at work, arrested | KRQE News 13.

Related: Post office shooting: Man went after supervisor

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