FORT WORTH
A U.S. postal worker faces an aggravated assault charge after bringing a gun into the Riverside Post Office Monday morning and ordering co-workers to the ground, police officials say.
Police responded to a report of a person with a weapon about 7:45 a.m. at the post office at 400 N. Retta St.
The employee, identified by police as Jason Silmon, had entered the post office about 7:30 a.m. armed with a handgun, according to Cpl. Tracey Knight, a police spokeswoman.
“Silmon instructed the other employees to get on the ground and approximately 11 people working at the time complied with his demand,” Knight stated in an email to the Star-Telegram. “After a few minutes, Silmon put the gun down and waited for police to arrive.”
Silmon, 27, was still getting booked into jail early Monday afternoon. His mugshot was not yet available.
Knight said police are trying to determine what prompted the incident.
The suspect’s father, Robert Silmon, said he was caught off guard when a detective called him Monday morning and informed him of his son’s arrest.
“I don’t understand because Jason is not a problem,” Robert Silmon said. “He’s not violent in no kind of way.”
Robert Silmon said his son has worked for more than 10 years with the post office as a carrier.
He said his son had called him Friday to wish him a happy birthday. During their conversation, Robert Silmon said, his son mentioned that he was having an issue with some co-workers, which prompted him to leave work early Friday to cool off.
Robert Silmon said his son did not provide further details, only saying he didn’t understand why the employees were suddenly “tripping with him.”
“I told him, ‘Hey, just cool down and let it go. Don’t even worry about what other people are saying or doing. Don’t let that bug you. Just chill. Don’t even trip about it,’” Robert Silmon said.
Robert Silmon said his son, who lives in Arlington, has no criminal history. He said he hoped to visit his son in jail to learn more.
“He’s not a problem,” Robert Silmon said. “I don’t know what’s going on or what happened.”
this happens when 99% of postal mismgt has no college education……………..low life scum who think they are on the level of Harvard MBA’s. would be real funny if it were not so sad………and destructive!
Well, this carrier obviously is or has a problem. The workers there are lucky to not have another Edmond, Oklahoma or Royal Oak, Michigan tragedy on their hands.
It is a very troubling thing for us as postal employees and managers to know that our business has such a violent history among its own people. Who is to blame? Management, for creating horribly hostile and stressful workplaces, and allowing craft employees to get out of control until you get a situation like this one.
But, realistically, we can’t lay it all on one cause. Some people just snap, and because we are one of the largest work forces if not the largest in the country, these incidents will happen. Trigger incidences like marital problems, threat of job loss, mental illness going undiagnosed, bullying by other employees, which I’ve seen myself, and other causes mean that the threat is always present.
Perhaps it’s time offices installed metal detectors. I’ll bet that most larger offices at least have all had people who they thought were capable of committing violent acts but nothing was done.
If your office is under a lot of harassment and bullying by management, don’t just stand there and take it. Talk to your steward, document the abuses and get witnesses. File Joint Statement Against Violence and Behavior in the Workplace grievances when it’s appropriate. You can’t file a joint statement just because a supervisor tells you to carry a swing or follow an order you don’t really feel like doing. Use common sense. When a supervisor insults you, file a grievance under the M-39 Sec. 115 that orders managers to treat employees with respect and dignity. Then up the ante when the situation doesn’t improve. If you are threatened in any manner, like a supervisor telling you if you don’t get back by a certain time you’ll be disciplined, that’s grievable. I worked for one psycho woman who insulted carriers’ families and spread all the vicious gossip she could gather, in addition to bullying the living shit out of anybody who let her.
She’s history because we went after her.
If a fellow craft employee is becoming unstable and you genuinely fear for your safety, it’s management’s job to stop the behavior by offering counseling or whatever. You can also call the Threat Assessment Team at your district if the conditions merit. I’m glad nobody was hurt in Ft. Worth.
Grieve everything and think you are stable? See a shrink fast.
Wee have never work together management is full of family members and nepotism is very visible I just retired because of this problem because it was staring to cause me depression and anger of how much a coworker g et out of a real job band go and kiss up to her or. His boos that is either a family member or a lover
employees were tripping with him? he’s not violent in no kind of way? sounds to me like his father is a dumbass from da hood! fo shigga!
Maybe management should worry about getting the mail out and try to work with the carrier, and mail handler, also mail processing .the need to work together or the p.o. will fail. Thank you.
Do you think? Maybe Mgt. should do their job and manage! More than likely this guy was doing more than his fair share because Mgt. didn’t have the back bone to make the other carriers do their share!
I’m not a carrier but I see how Mgt. treat their “pets”. If this would be a normal company it would have shut down 30 years ago. That’s about the time the “entitlement” group arrived and brought their kids, cousins, brothers and sisters in with them.