Main Post Office renamed after slain employee

Cathy Scott

Friday, Oct. 24, 1997 | 10:15 a.m.

The Las Vegas main post office is being renamed after a slain postal employee.

The Saturday rededication of the post office, renamed the James C. Brown Jr. Facility, follows the Dec. 19 shooting death of 59-year-old "Jay" Brown as he walked into work that day from the parking lot. He was confronted by a man armed with a revolver near the employee entrance of the post office at 1001 E. Sunset Road.

Four or five shots were fired, hitting Brown in his head and chest. He died at the scene.

Half an hour later, 41-year-old Charles Jennings surrendered to police. Jennings, a former mail handler and a union steward, was fired six months earlier by Brown, who was a senior labor relations specialist at the Postal Service branch and also the No. 2 man in the Postal Service in Southern Nevada, officials said. Jennings had just received word by certified mail that an arbitration hearing panel had upheld his firing, according to Postal Inspector Don Obritsch.

Prosecutors, who have said they will pursue a first-degree murder conviction, are expected to argue that Jennings carried a pistol to the employee parking lot for the early-morning confrontation.

But Jennings' attorney, Steve Wolfson, said in court during Jennings' arraignment that Jennings didn't go there as a disgruntled employee. Instead, Wolfson said, "Brown may have been hit while trying to take the gun away from Mr. Jennings. He never intended to shoot anybody that day."

Brown, who spent his entire postal career in Las Vegas, starting out as a mail carrier in 1979. He was a big booster of Bishop Gorman High School sports, said Mark Ratner, executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission and commissioner of the Southern Nevada Officials Association.

Brown, a former vice president of the officials association, had retired from officiating about five years ago.

He was heavily decorated while serving in the Air Force in Southeast Asia, receiving the Bronze Star, the Meritorious Service Award and Commendation Medal. He also was awarded a presidential certificate for service.

More than 1,000 invitations have been sent to family, friends and postal employees to attend the 11 a.m. dedication ceremony at the Sunset Road facility. Also dedicated will be a new 107,000-square-foot processing and distribution center. Also, 30 new automated and processing machines have been installed at the center.