Seven Killed in California Postal Shootings

According to California law enforcement officials, seven people are dead after a deadly shooting spree in a Santa Barbara mail sorting center. The killer is believed to be a former postal employee who killed six former co-workers before committing suicide on Monday in Goleta, CA.

A little after nine am Monday, police received calls that shots had been fired and that two bodies were laying in the street. Santa Barbara Sheriff Spokesperson Erik Raney said that a former employee with a firearm was suspected of shooting postal workers. Both the Santa Barbara County police and the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team responded to the murder scene.

Six of the shooting victims and the killer were pronounced dead at the scene, and another two were taken to a local hospital in critical condition. One of these critically injured died and the other is in critical condition with cranial gun wounds.

According to the Bureau of Labor statistics, over 550 people were killed due to workplace violence in 2004 alone. Workplace homicide is the second leading cause of work related deaths, after motorcycle accidents. In the majority of postal work- related homicides firearms were used to kill the victims. Despite public perception, the postal industry does not have an increased risk of workplace homicides, according to a 1994 study conducted by the CDC's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).