2 workers killed in Tennessee post office shooting

10/18/2010

HENNING, Tenn. — Two suspected gunmen opened fire at a post office in a rural West Tennessee town that was home to "Roots" author Alex Haley, killing two women during what one survivor described as an attempted robbery.

The shooting happened Monday morning at the post office in Henning, the Lauderdale County Sheriff's Department told The Associated Press. Officers were searching for a maroon Chevrolet Malibu with two men inside, and no arrests have been made.

The post office, which sits between a self-service car wash and a coin-operated laundry called "Mom's" in this town of about 1,200 people, often has residents coming in to pick up their mail. Home delivery isn't provided in Henning, some 45 miles northeast of Memphis.

Around midday, plainclothes investigators were scanning the area along a railroad track that sits behind the post office. Lines of yellow police tape kept people away from the building as a crowd gathered nearby, some sitting in chairs, waiting for more information about what happened.

Crime scene investigation trucks were parked outside, including one from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

Ella Holloway, who lives within walking distance of the post office, said she knew one of the women killed. Holloway said she would be greeted by the woman's smile when she went to the post office to buy stamps.

"She was a real nice person," Holloway said.

Tony Burns, a state employee at the Tennessee Capitol in Nashville, said his sister-in-law is a postal service worker who was assigned to the Henning office Monday. She told him that the shooting happened during a robbery attempt, but that she escaped unharmed.

Standing on a street corner near the post office, city resident Emmitt Hennings, a 71-year-old retiree, said it was hard to comprehend what happened.

"I just couldn't believe it, not in this town," Hennings said. "It's too quiet."

Yulanda Burns, an inspector with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Atlanta, said it was too early to determine a motive. The FBI also was helping the postal service investigate.

The post office is less than a half-mile away from the museum dedicated to the "Roots" author Haley, who died in 1992. The 1976 book won a Pulitzer Prize and was the basis for a top-rated TV series. The story chronicled his family history from Africa to slavery and freedom in the U.S., and it inspired many people to research their own families' roots.