This is the third in my series on active killers who committed their crimes in a post office, postal related setting or who were former postal employees who “went berserk.” On Thursday, November 14, 1991, Thomas McIlvane took an illegally modified Ruger 10/22 rifle – arguably the most popular .22lr rifle made in America in recent decades – to his former place of work and committed his attack. At the regional postal center in Royal Oak, Michigan, McIlvane shot nine people, killing three and injuring six others on scene before turning the gun on himself. Of the six injured, one later died of the injuries making McIlvane’s final total four dead and five wounded (not including himself). Three other employees were reportedly injured when they jumped out of second story windows to escape the attack. (NOTE: That would also happen years later when students jumped from second story windows in Norris Hall at Virginia Tech to escape Seung Hui Cho’s attack.)
Thirty-one years old at the time of the attack, McIlvane had been terminated from his employment with the post office and had a history of problems. One fellow employee had served with McIlvane in the Marine Corps and noted that McIlvane had been dishonorably discharged after using a tank to destroy private property. During his employment with the post office, McIlvane had been counseled for having gotten in disputes and disagreements with postal customers as well as having had “fights” with his supervisor(s).
McIlvane’s terminated the year before had been well known to other employees and he had taken steps through the union’s grievance procedures to contest his termination. Just six days prior to the attack, he lost the arbitration hearing which made his termination final. Through the course of the year after he had been fired, he had made several comments to prior coworkers threatening violence if he didn’t get his job back. His supervisors and other post office “officials” admitted that they were aware of his threats and his reputation for having a “short fuse” but further stated there was little they could do. Due to the nature of the postal facility and its operations, they said it could only be secured so much.
The three victims killed on scene were all postal supervisors: two men, one woman, ranging in age from 32 to 37. The local police department was reportedly familiar with McIlvane as he had applied for, and been issued, a concealed carry permit for a handgun the previous year. However, that permit had been revoked after McIlvane became a suspect in another investigation wherein a man reported having been threatened. McIlvane had also been charged with crimes involving telephone threats but ha been acquitted.
According to information gleaned in the post incident investigation, McIlvane had four magazines for the Ruger 10/22 and when they were recovered after the shooting attack, all four were empty. McIlvane is said to have made entry into the facility through an unlocked door. Also revealed during the post event investigation was the fact that several other employees had experienced challenges with the supervisors and at least one other employee had been charged with threatening a supervisor with a knife but had been acquitted of the charge. The problems were deemed of sufficient concern that at least one senator and one representative in that district agreed to take complaints from the postal workers.
McIlvane, a black belt in karate and competitive kick boxer, had repeatedly threatened revenge on the supervisors and the postal facility if he wasn’t reinstated. Part of the content of his threats included “making Sherrill’s attack in Edmond look like a day at Disneyland.” After the attack committed by Harris in Ridgewood, NJ, at least one of McIlvane’s supervisors requested extra services and protection from the post office’s security division but was denied. That supervisor was one of the four killed by McIlvane during the attack.
McIlvane’s attack was reported to have lasted approximately ten minutes and ended when he shot himself in the head. He didn’t die immediately, however, and lasted for several days in a coma in the hospital. The expectation of McIlvane coming back to commit such an attack was so high among his coworkers that several of them wrote up escape plans to get away when he did.
Let’s think about the reality of that for a few moments. McIlvane had been dishonorably discharged from the Marine Corps after using a TANK to destroy private property. Subtlety, tact, diplomacy were not skills he had or used. With a black belt in karate and having experience as a kick boxing competitor, he was no stranger to physical altercation. His former coworkers, supervisors and even the police department had almost a year of knowledge of his threats and he had been acquitted of a previous crime of threats of violence. Some of his coworkers were so sure he’d snap and commit an attack that they drew up escape plans for when he did.
This attack, in particular, has all the earmarks of having been preventable. Doing so would have required a greater response on the part of the local postal authorities. Someone in the proper position would have had to order heightened security measures at the facility and it would have been a good idea to have armed guards at the access points. Because nothing proactive was done, McIlvane walked in with an illegally modified (sawed off) rifle hidden under a raincoat. The rifle had been legally purchased even after his concealed carry permit had been revoked. The warning lights should have been going off at the facility and with the local police department. This is what happens when several people shrug and say, “What can we do?” and no one ends up doing anything… until it’s too late.
