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Politics & Government

Royal Oak Remembers Postal Shootings

Royal Oak residents recall the tragic events that occurred Nov. 14, 1991, at the Royal Oak post office.

Twenty years ago, after he was fired from the U.S. Postal Service for insubordination, letter carrier Thomas McIlvane of Oak Park fatally shot four people at the before he turned the gun on himself Nov. 14, 1991.

Royal Oak residents and business owners recall the tragic events of that day.

Postal employees seek shelter during the shootings

Franklin Hilzinger owned Hilzinger's Hardware (now ) in 1991, just east of the post office. On that Thursday morning in November, Hilzinger got to work early.

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"I was in the store, and I heard someone banging on the back door," he said. "The person was yelling, 'Someone is shooting at the post office. Let me in!' "

The shootings began at 8:48 a.m., and hardware store had not yet opened.

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Hilzinger let the person in and locked the door. During the next several minutes, he let in dozens more as workers fled the post office seeking shelter.

"I would see them running across the parking lot and I would ask, 'Is that person OK to let in?' and someone would say, 'Yes. That is so-and-so, and they work with us,' " the now-retired Hilzinger said. "No one knew who was shooting or how many shooters there even were."

Panic in the streets

Another business open early that day was . Thinking back to that day, owner Richard Hermann remembers looking out into the streets and seeing the police officers and firefighters running in the streets. 

Hermann recalls a passer-by shouting, “Someone is shooting at the post office."

"They couldn’t believe what was happening," he said. "It seemed so chaotic. What a shame for all involved.”

Union steward recalls hearing the shots

"That morning was a nice day. It was sunny," union steward Charlie Withers recalled.

Withers represented McIlvane on behalf of the National Association of Letter Carriers Local 3126 in a grievance case that had gone to arbitration a few weeks prior to the shootings. McIlvane lost the arbitration effort.

"He got in the ramp in the back and then went down to the general foreman's office and shot him," Withers said. "Then he went back on the floor and shot two other supervisors. Everybody could hear the shots. It was spooky. It was scary."

Family members call to check on loved ones

Michael Frasier received a call from his mother after she heard about the shootings on the radio. Frasier was working at the Royal Oak processing plant, which was different from the actual post office, and was off the day of the shooting. 

"Oh, thank God you're OK!" was the first thing his mother said to him. Frasier remembered thinking to himself, "Was it the plant or the post office?" his mother was talking about. As the day went on, he learned that it was the Royal Oak post office. Later, he discovered that one of the victims was someone he knew.

In the days following the shootings, Frasier said one of the grief counselors, who was at the plant for several days after the shooting, told a group of employees, "This was not the act of a sane person who was pushed too far. There was something 'wrong' with him before this happened."

“Back then, anyone could walk into 'employee only' areas, as doors were typically not locked,” Frasier said. Since then, all employees have been issued magnetic swipe badges with their pictures on them. To gain entrance into employee areas, each worker has to have a badge. If someone is fired from the post office, the badge is immediately deactivated so he or she cannot get back in.

Frasier said the post office also put an employee assistance program in place. There are now counselors available to address a variety of issues that might arise from, or contribute to, a less-than-satisfactory work environment.

Some postal workers opened up, others were silent

John McEntee of on Main Street can see the post office from the back entrance of the store. Postal employees then and now will stop in to grab a few things and chat. 

McEntee remembers how upset the employees were about the tragedy. 

“They would talk about the management issues and the tension that had been mounting up until that incident,” McEntee said. “It was the talk of the town for many months to come."

Directly across the parking lot from the Royal Oak post office is the restaurant. The owner at the time, Cecilia Lim, recalled how she heard about the shootings on the news. 

“We had a lot of postal employees that were customers. They were very upset about what happened, but they didn’t want to talk about it," she said.

A former elected official remembers a friend

On Nov. 14, 1991, Keith Ciszewski of Livonia was shot in the head by McIlvane and died instantly. Ciszewski, a labor relations specialist, was helping a female co-worker escape out a window when the gunman entered the room they were in. The woman escaped unharmed.

Ciszewski was the arbitrator who handled the hearing in which McIlvane was suspended.

Former state Rep. Marie Donigan was a friend of Ciszewski.

"He was in a group that I hung out with," said Donigan. "I would run into him at parties."

She said Ciszewski and three other men were notorious for playing cards, hunting and smoking cigars. The men were constant companions and would get together on weekends.

"I remember going to the funeral home, and there were cigars everywhere as symbols of their friendship."

Donigan also recalled how surreal it was to see her hometown post office and Dennis Cowan, the city's mayor pro tem at the time, on the national news. "It just didn't seem right," she said.

Mayor pro tem finds himself in the media spotlight

Former Mayor Dennis Cowan was the mayor pro tem in 1991. As he recalls it, then-Mayor Patricia Paruch and City Manager Bill Baldridge were out of town when the events of Nov. 14, 1991, unfolded.

"I was in my law office that day when I heard the news," said Cowan. "I was called to come down to City Hall to meet with John Ball, the police chief at that time. We couldn't meet at the post office, of course, because it was a crime scene."

Cowan said Ball filled him in on the details of that morning.

"I cannot tell you how shocking and devastating that was," he said. The next thing he knew, he was cast into the national media spotlight, answering questions from reporters.

Twenty years later, Cowan said two things stand out for him about the tragic event.

"I remember the professionalism of all our first responders," he said. "It was difficult on them."

Cowan said that unless someone in the police or fire department had been in the military, they had never seen such carnage. "It was a rough day for them," he said.

The other thing he remembers is a prayer service that was held for the victims at the .

"It was extremely well-attended by postal employees and residents," he said. "It began the healing process."

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