3 Killed, 1 Hurt in Post Office Shooting

Three people were killed and at least one other was wounded Monday evening in a shooting inside a U.S. Postal Service facility in Goleta, Calif., officials said.

The suspect, who was still at large late Monday night, is believed to be a female ex-employee of the facility, said Sgt. Erik Raney of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department.

The shooting occurred about 9:15 p.m. at a post office transfer facility where employees work through the night, said Santa Barbara County Fire Capt. Keith Cullom.

Cullom said that fire dispatchers began getting calls from the facility about the same time that people from the post office ran across the street to Fire Station 11 to report that a shooting had occurred.

Cullom said he could not identify the victims and had no information on their ages or genders.

Two who died were found lying in the parking lot of the postal facility, and the third was pronounced dead after being transported to a hospital. Firefighters also pulled at least one wounded victim from inside the facility and transported that person.

A nursing supervisor at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital confirmed that two women had been taken there. One was pronounced dead on arrival, the other was in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the head.

Santa Barbara County sheriff’s deputies surrounded the building and closed off streets, and were still searching for a suspect late Monday evening. Several dozen post office employees were evacuated from the facility, and an unknown number remained inside. Raney said that it was not clear whether the suspect was still inside the building, but called the building’s interior “an active, fluid situation.�

He said many shots were fired, but deputies do not know what sort of weapon was used. Cullom also said it remained unclear whether there were more victims inside the post office facility.

Chuck Kronic, an employee at the facility, said, “Our boss came running over and said ‘Get out of the building now!’ We high-tailed it out of there.� He said he wound up hiding behind a truck in the parking lot.

Kronic said he didn’t see the shooter, but added that if it was the woman other postal employees described, he met her two years ago. He said there was an incident with her about that time and “they had to gang-tackle her to get her out of there.� He said she had problems at the time with a supervisor.

More than an hour after the shooting, postal employees were still exiting the building, Cullom said, and sheriff’s deputies were searching each one at gunpoint as they came out, he said.

The facility is not a public-use post office, Cullom said, and is used only by postal-service employees. It is located west of Santa Barbara and south of the 101 Freeway on Storke Road.

Times staff writer Steve Chawkins and Associated Press contributed to this report.