On the morning of August 20, 1986, Leroy Orrin Phillips, a 42-year-old rural carrier, was working at the Edmond, Oklahoma post office when a deadly workplace shooting occurred. Patrick Sherrill, a 44-year-old part-time letter carrier who had been reprimanded the day before, entered the building shortly after 7:00 a.m., locked the doors, produced three semi-automatic pistols from his mailbag and began firing. Sherrill moved through the facility, fatally shooting fourteen people and wounding six; Phillips was among those killed during the roughly fifteen-minute rampage.

As officers arrived they found Sherrill dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, so there were no arrests or trials in connection with these deaths. The episode, later called the Edmond Post Office Massacre, had a profound effect on the community and drew national attention to workplace violence. If anyone knew Leroy Orrin Phillips or was at the post office that morning, please share what details could help expand the record.