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Remembering the 1991 Ridgewood Postal Shooting
Peter Coti
(RIDGEWOOD-NJ) Twenty years ago on October 10th, 1991 a frightful event occurred in our small town. Joseph M. Harris, a formal Ridgewood postal worker, killed his former superviser and her fiance in rage at her house in Wayne after he was fired. Harris then proceeded to drive over to the Ridgewood Post Office, armed with two machine guns, hand grenades and a samuari sword. When postal employees arrived for work he proceeded to kill them and eventually had a 4 ½ hour stand off with police. After this event took place the term “going postal”. Harris was sentenced to death and died in 1996.
We must remember these frightful events that occurred in our town, not ignore them. This is a reminder to us that we are not immune to crime and violence in our normally quiet neighborhoods. Most importantly though we must remember the lives of the four people whos lives were lost on that tragic day, even if we were not a resident at the time or have forgotten about it.
This should also be a reminder for us that we need to be prepared for such events, even in our tranquill village. Another thing we should take from this is the fact we need to be able to regonize the warning signs of mental illness that could have prevented this whole event in the first place.
On October 10th I feel that is nessessary for some sort of rememberence of those los. I urge all of you to have a moment of silence in the morning on October 10th.