I cant really make a joke here about this, and my condolences go out to the victims families and friends but things like this are where that term "going postal" came from.

Updated 1/31/2006 9:37 AM

Ex-postal worker commits suicide after 6 die in shooting
GOLETA, Calif. (AP) ? A female ex-postal worker opened fire at a mail processing plant, killing six people and critically wounding another before committing suicide, authorities said early Tuesday.
Deputies overnight swarmed the Santa Barbara Processing and Distribution Center, located just blocks from University of California, Santa Barbara, as they searched for the female shooter. The Monday night rampage sent employees running from the sprawling complex and prompted authorities to warn nearby residents to stay indoors.

Deputies responding to a call of shots fired about 9:15 p.m. found two people dead outside the plant. Two women located inside the building were taken to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, where one was pronounced dead upon arrival and the other was listed early Tuesday in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the head.

Nearly five hours later, deputies found four additional bodies, including one believed to be that of the female shooter, Anderson said. That woman, whose identity was not immediately released, died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, he said.

"We do not believe there is any additional threat to the community," Anderson said.

It was one of the deadliest postal shootings since a string of high-profile cases in the mid-1980s and early '90s, including one in which a part-time letter carrier killed 14 people in Edmond, Okla., before taking his own life.

Names of the victims in Monday's shooting were not immediately available. Sgt. Erik Raney with the sheriff's department said the victims were believed to be current postal employees.

In a statement, Postmaster General John Potter said families of the victims were being notified and counselors would be available to the families and employees at the plant.

"Our heartfelt prayers and condolences go out to the families of the victims and to our employees who have suffered through this tragic incident," Potter said.

It was unknown how many guns were used, how the shooter entered the complex or whether a suicide note was found, Raney said. The shooter is believed to be a Santa Barbara County resident, he said.

At the distribution center, a line of flares blocked street traffic and yellow police tape surrounded the front of the building. Sheriff's deputies and officials with the U.S. Postal Service milled about, keeping reporters from entering the site.

The 200,000-square-foot distribution center, one of the largest in the area, is located across the street from a fire station. Witnesses ran there immediately after the shooting started, according to Santa Barbara County Fire Capt. Keith Cullom.

Postal employee Charles Kronick told KEYT-TV in Santa Barbara said he was inside the building when shots rang out. Some 50 to 60 employees were seen running from the plant.

"I heard something that sounded like a pop, and then I heard a couple seconds later, another pop, pop, pop," Kronick said.

His boss came running over and told him to get out of the building, Kronick said. "We all hightailed it out real quick."

About 300 people are employed at the plant in Goleta, 90 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

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