With the term “going postal” having been applied to the act of attacking coworkers in a business environment – something that had been done by postal employees in the past, thereby generating the term – it’s odd / interesting to actually write about an active shooter event that occurred in a parcel service facility: The UPS facility in San Francisco, California.
On June 14th, 2017, Jimmy Lam took a backpack with a couple weapons inside, and went to work. He had been working for UPS for approximately 18 years and was 38 years old at the time. Inside the pack he had two semi-automatic weapons: one a Mac-10 and the other a Smith & Wesson (although some reports said the second handgun was an “M1911 style weapon” which didn’t match the police evidence recovery photos). It’s reported that when he passed through the metal detectors at the security checkpoint on his way into work, he set off the alarm, but was – for whatever reason – allowed to continue into the building without anyone discovering his weapons.
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The remainder of this article is part of the book "Active Killers and the Crimes They Perpetrated," available in print or ebook via Amazon.
Joshua Borelli
Joshua Borelli has been studying active shooter and mass attack events over the course of the past several years, commensurate with receiving training on response and recovery to natural disasters and civil disturbances. Joshua started to outline this series of articles in an attempt to identify commonalities and logistical needs patterns for response.
