Postal worker charged with shooting at federal reserve building
The Hennepin County Attorney's Office has charged a postal worker for allegedly shooting a shotgun at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis building from a parking garage across the street in July.
Prosecutors say that Christopher Douglas Wood, 43, of St. Paul, shot at least three shotgun slugs from the Minneapolis Post Office's parking ramp towards the bank building after his shift ended on July 21. The shotgun slugs caused more than $40,000 of damage, breaking windows and penetrating offices where employees worked, according to the complaint.
Investigators say employees were working in the bank and thousands of spectators were in the streets watching the Minneapolis Aquatennial fireworks display at the time of the shooting. No one was injured.
Officers with the Federal Reserve Bank's law enforcement agency used a laser to estimate the trajectory of the shotgun slugs and say that they were fired from the parking ramp near where Wood parks his car, according to the complaint. Security footage showed Wood's car leaving the garage at 11:15 p.m., more than an hour after he was supposed to have finished his shift.
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When Minneapolis officers searched Wood's apartment after his arrest, they found a 12-gauge shotgun beneath his bed and an assortment of ammunition, including a shotgun slug cartridge of the same brand as the slugs that were found. They also found literature critical of the Federal Reserve Bank and stack of fake money with former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul's face on the bills.
Wood is charged with three felonies, including reckless discharge of a firearm and damage to property with a foreseeable risk of bodily harm.
Wood was released from Hennepin County Jail on Thursday afternoon after posting a $40,000 bond and under the condition that he surrender his passport and stays at least three blocks away from the federal reserve bank. He's scheduled to appear in court for an omnibus hearing on October 11.
The U.S. Postal Service referred media calls to the Office of Inspector General, who said Wood is not working but declined to release information about his employment status.