DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A female postal worker shot two female co-workers at the main post office in Iowa’s capital city Thursday before being captured nearby and faces attempted murder charges, authorities said.
Jennifer Christine Pledger, 39, of West Des Moines, stood above one woman who she had shot and fired again, police said, and continued firing as she fled the building.
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A male employee was injured in a fall while trying to escape. None of the injuries were believed to be life-threatening, according to police.
“They’re all at the hospital. They are being cared for right now,” Des Moines police Sgt. Paul Parizek said of the victims, who included two women, 45 and 53, and a 55-year-old man. All were in stable condition.
Pledger is being charged with two counts of attempted murder, two counts of willful injury causing serious injury and intimidation. Attempts by The Associated Press to reach possible relatives were unsuccessful and information was not immediately available on an attorney who could speak on her behalf.
The shooting happened on the facility’s second floor, in an area not accessible to the public. Witnesses reported hearing 10 to 12 shots, he said.
Parizek said officers responded within three minutes and quickly captured Pledger, who was detained along a nearby bike path without resistance. A 9 mm handgun was recovered where she was detained.
Police began receiving calls about the shooting around 9:10 a.m., and the suspect was detained at 9:21 a.m., Parizek said.
The post office is just north of downtown Des Moines and across the street from one of the city’s main hospitals.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service said in an email that it was investigating the shooting along with local, state and federal law enforcement.
Gov. Kim Reynolds said she was in contact with the Department of Public Safety regarding the shooting.
“We are monitoring the situation and our prayers are with everyone involved,” she posted online. “Grateful for the immediate response by law enforcement.”
Des Moines Public Schools said the district’s nearby elementary school, welcome center and nutrition center temporarily barred anyone from entering or leaving the facilities due to the shooting. Those restrictions were lifted after police told them the suspect was in custody.
Past shootings at postal facilities have prompted the Postal Service to study employee safety.
In 1986, a disgruntled postal worker went on a deadly rampage at a post office in Edmond, Oklahoma, shooting 14 fellow workers before killing himself. In 1991, a fired postal worker killed four former co-workers at his former post office in Royal Oak, Michigan, before killing himself. After those and other shootings, postal officials commissioned a study released in 2000 to examine workplace violence around the time that the term “going postal” was becoming conversational.
The report issued several recommendations to flag violent tendencies while concluding that “going postal” was a myth and that postal employees are less violent than the national workforce.
Other attacks have occurred since the report, including a 2006 shooting in Goleta, California, where a former postal worker stormed into a sorting facility and fatally shot six workers before killing himself.
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Associated Press writers R.J. Rico in Atlanta and Jamie Stengle in Dallas contributed to this report.
