The postal workers talked to counselors about their rage, sorrow and guilt. Townspeople called area hot lines and recalled horrifying events of their past–robberies, rapes and murders. And pastors and the survivors began burying their friends and loved ones.
The aftershock from a few violent minutes Wednesday morning at the post office had begun to set in.
When Patrick Henry Sherrill, a part-time postal worker from nearby Oklahoma City, pulled two .45 caliber military-issue pistols from his mailbag and killed 14 coworkers and himself, Edmond lost much of its suburban innocence, replaced by the notoriety of a mass murder that was the third worst in the nation`s history.
On Friday, pyschologists and ministers counseled 70 postal workers in a session that was described by officials as emotionally wrenching. The rescue workers who were first on the scene, and the police officers who tried to piece together what had happened, also were offered counseling. Five other victims of Sherrill`s attack remained hospitalized.
Mark Hayes, executive director of North Care Mental Health Center, said officials tried to reassure the postal workers that their feelings of fear, anger and frustration were normal and that they needed to be vented.
After returning to work Thursday morning in a symbolic show of strength, Edmond`s postal workers were replaced Friday by volunteers and postal workers transferred from other cities. That allowed them to attend the funerals of their friends, rites that were repeated Saturday and at a public memorial service Sunday.
The killings also brought back recollections of previous tragedies for some townspeople, according to Julane Borth, executive director of Contact, a crisis intervention hot line.
”One woman called whose brother had been killed,” Borth said. ”Another whose husband was shot and killed, and a woman who was robbed and raped. Another woman called and just said she was feeling very alone.”
Another telephone hot line for people having trouble coping was established by the Ministerial Alliance.
Throughout the town, in shops, restaurants and the bank along Broadway, people continued talking about The Morning. They offered sentiments that have become almost cliche–that things like the massacre weren`t supposed to happen in little towns such as Edmond.
Investigators continued to work to find out more about Sherrill, and they hoped that information stored on dozens of computer disks and cassette tapes found in his home would provide answers.
An FBI computer expert in Oklahoma City discovered information indicating that one of the last things Sherrill did on the computer was attempt to contact a computer billboard, a source close to the investigation said.
But the agent could not determine whether Sherrill was successful. Because of the great number of disks that Sherrill kept, the work was turned over to a computer specialist from Central State University in Edmond.
In Oklahoma City, state National Guard officials said Sherrill`s two .45s, one of them a match-grade weapon with special boring and other features for accuracy, came from the guard armory. Sherrill had checked them out a week ago. He also had been issued 500 rounds of .45 caliber ammunition, but guard officials did not know if it was used in the killings.
