DES MOINES, Iowa — Two postal workers were shot and a third employee was injured in a fall while escaping gunfire on the second floor of the Des Moines Main Post Office on Thursday morning, November 5, in a workplace shooting that shut down part of downtown Des Moines and put nearby school buildings into a secure status for 40 minutes. Police say the suspected shooter is a woman who also works for the U.S. Postal Service at the facility. She was detained at 9:21 a.m. on a bike trail just east of the post office, minutes after the first reports of shots, after witnesses pointed her out to officers. None of the three injuries is believed to be life-threatening, Des Moines police Sgt. Paul Parizek told reporters at the scene.

The shooting was reported at about 9:10 a.m. Central time at the main post office at 1165 Second Avenue, near University Avenue, just north of downtown Des Moines and directly across the street from MercyOne Des Moines Medical Center, one of the city's main hospitals. Parizek said the 911 call came from inside the building and that officers arrived within about three minutes. Police vehicles from the Des Moines Police Department, the Pleasant Hill Police Department, the Polk County Sheriff's Office and the Iowa State Patrol converged on the facility, and police initially asked the public to avoid the area around Second Avenue and University Avenue while investigators worked, with Sixth Avenue and East 14th Street reported as nearby alternative routes.

All three injured people are employees — and so is the suspect, police say

Parizek confirmed to KCCI that all three injured people work at the facility. Two suffered gunshot wounds and the third was hurt in a fall while getting away from the gunfire, police told KCRG. All three were taken for hospital treatment — the post office stands directly across from MercyOne Des Moines Medical Center, and one injured person reached a medical facility without ambulance transport, according to the Des Moines Register's account of the initial police briefing. "They're all at the hospital. They are being cared for right now," Parizek said of the victims, in remarks carried by the Associated Press. Police have not released the victims' names or said how seriously each person was wounded beyond the assessment that the injuries are not believed to be life-threatening — an initial police assessment, not a final medical outcome.

The suspect's position inside the same workplace is the detail investigators are now working around. Parizek identified the detained suspect as a woman employed at the post office, according to KCRG's reporting, and police said in a late-morning update that she was detained on the bike trail east of the building after witnesses pointed her out. As of Thursday afternoon, police had not released her name, announced any criminal charges, or given a motive, and authorities have not said whether the suspect knew the victims. Being in custody is not the same as being charged: a charging announcement, if one comes, will set out what prosecutors allege happened on the second floor and why.

Schools secured for 40 minutes; the governor responds

Des Moines Public Schools said the district's nearby elementary school, its welcome center and its nutrition center went into a secure status — no one allowed in or out — after police notified the district of the shooting at 9:20 a.m. That status was lifted at 10 a.m., after police told the district a suspect was in custody. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said she was in contact with the Iowa Department of Public Safety about the shooting and confirmed in a post online that the suspected shooter was in custody while the investigation continued. "We are monitoring the situation and our prayers are with everyone involved," Reynolds wrote. "Grateful for the immediate response by law enforcement."

The building at the centre of the response

The Des Moines Main Post Office is a four-story regional mail-sorting facility with a walk-in service counter open to the public, the Associated Press reported — which is why Thursday morning's shooting was both a workplace incident and a public-safety emergency in the middle of the state capital. The building sits just north of downtown, across from a major hospital, near schools and on one of the city's busier downtown corridors. For Iowa's large postal workforce and for the businesses and households whose mail moves through the hub, the immediate practical questions — when the counter reopens, whether sorting and delivery routes are delayed, and where customers should go in the meantime — had not been answered by officials by Thursday afternoon, and anyone with urgent business at this facility should check current guidance from the Postal Service and Des Moines police before travelling to it.

What happens next

The investigation is continuing, with Des Moines police leading a multi-agency response at the scene. The next steps to watch are the public identification of the detained employee and any charging decision by Polk County prosecutors, updated medical word on the three injured employees, and a Postal Service statement on reopening and mail operations at 1165 Second Avenue. Awaaz Punjab will update this story as police release the suspect's name, charges or a motive.