Postal worker fires 12 shots at Iowa colleagues before police detain her on bike path

Three postal employees were hospitalized on Thursday after a coworker opened fire on the second floor of the main post office in Des Moines, Iowa. The incident occurred in a section of the building that is not open to the public. Witnesses reported hearing between 10 and 12 gunshots during the brief attack.

Jennifer Christine Pledger, 39, of West Des Moines, was identified as the shooter by authorities. Police said she stood over one woman she had already shot and fired again. She continued to fire as she ran out of the building. Officers received the first calls about the disturbance at 9:10 a.m. and detained Pledger at 9:21 a.m. near a local bike path.

Sgt. Paul Parizek of the Des Moines Police Department stated that officers responded within three minutes of the initial report. He said Pledger was captured without resistance. Police recovered a 9 mm handgun at the location where she was detained. Parizek noted that all three victims were being treated at a hospital and were in stable condition.

The victims included two women, aged 45 and 53, and a man, 55. The male employee was injured after falling while attempting to flee the scene. Parizek said none of the injuries were believed to be life-threatening. He described the hospitalization as a period of active care for all three staff members.

Pledger has been charged with two counts of attempted murder. She also faces two counts of willful injury causing serious injury and one count of intimidation. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service confirmed in an email that it is investigating the shooting alongside local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies. Attempts to reach relatives of the shooter or her attorney were unsuccessful as of the afternoon.

The post office is located just north of downtown Des Moines, directly across the street from a major city hospital. Des Moines Public Schools temporarily restricted entry and exit at a nearby elementary school, welcome center, and nutrition center as a precaution. Those restrictions were lifted after police confirmed the suspect was in custody.

Gov. Kim Reynolds said she was in contact with the Department of Public Safety regarding the incident. She posted online that the state was monitoring the situation and that prayers were with everyone involved. Reynolds expressed gratitude for the immediate response by law enforcement.

Violence at postal facilities has led to periodic reviews of employee safety protocols. In 1986, a postal worker in Edmond, Oklahoma, shot 14 co-workers before killing himself. A similar incident occurred in 1991 in Royal Oak, Michigan, where a fired worker killed four former colleagues. A 2000 study commissioned by postal officials examined workplace violence and concluded that the phrase "going postal" was a myth, finding that postal employees were less violent than the national workforce.

Despite that study, further attacks have occurred. In 2006, a former postal worker in Goleta, California, fatally shot six workers at a sorting facility before taking his own life. The Des Moines shooting adds a new data point to the long history of workplace violence investigations within the U.S. Postal Service.