3 employees killed in shooting at postal facility in Memphis

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Three U.S. Postal Service workers who died in a shooting spree at a Tennessee sorting facility included a supervisor, a manager and a letter carrier temporarily assigned to the postal annex, relatives and co-workers said.

Two workers were fatally shot Tuesday by a third who died from a self-inflicted gunshot, authorities said. The FBI and U.S. Postal Service didn’t immediately name those involved.

Laquita Benjamin, president of the local branch of the National Association of Postal Supervisors, told media outlets that those killed were a carrier, a supervisor and a manager.

“You can’t just relate it to the postal service because you have school shootings, store shootings, you have shootings all over,” Benjamin said.

A family member identified one of the dead as James Wilson, a manager at the East Lamar Carrier Annex in Orange Mound, a historic Memphis neighborhood.

“He was a humble soul, one of the nicest supervising managers you could ever wish there was,” Roxanne Rogers said of Wilson, her cousin.

Rogers, herself a postal worker, said Wilson had just returned to the annex after filling in at a different location.

Melvin Richardson, president of the American Postal Workers Union Local 96, said the annex is only used by employees. Carriers depart from annexes in the morning and staff remain throughout the day with tasks such as sorting mail.

Retired mail carrier LaFerre Ryan rushed to the facility where he worked for 18 years after hearing about the shootings.

“We all postal family,” Ryan said. “They’re still my family. It hurts because it can be me or anyone else, you know what I’m saying,” said Ryan.