Survivor Ids Suspect In Shooting -- Former Employee Of Postal Service Is Under Arrest

MONTCLAIR, N.J. - The only person to survive a post-office shooting that left four dead helped identify the suspected killer by wiggling his fingers and toes from his hospital bed, police say.

David Grossman, who was shot twice in the face in Tuesday afternoon's holdup and was in guarded condition this morning, also was able to write down information that provided authorities with a description of the gunman and his silver weapon, Police Chief Thomas Russo said.

Along with an anonymous tip, Grossman's help led police yesterday to arrest Christopher Green, a former postal worker who told investigators he was burdened with a "mountain of debt."

Green, 29, remained jailed pending a bail hearing Monday. If convicted, he could receive the federal death penalty.

In his apartment, investigators found blood-spattered clothes, his registered 9 mm pistol believed to have been used in the crime, three blood-spattered postal money orders and $2,000 cash, some of it under the refrigerator.

Green told police he used $2,000 of the stolen money to pay back rent hours after the shooting, U.S. Attorney Faith Hochberg said. More than $5,000 was taken in the robbery, she said.

According to court papers, Green told investigators he entered the post office Tuesday afternoon, ordered the two workers and three customers inside to go to the back room and lie on the floor, then shot them.

Police were summoned to the scene by a customer and by a postal worker trying to pick up mail.

The customer, who had called the post office to ask the workers if they could stay open a few minutes late, knocked to signal her arrival as arranged. But someone rushed to the door and told her to go away, saying there was a plumbing problem in the building, The New York Times reported today.

As she walked away, she heard shots, an unidentified investigator with the Essex County prosecutor's office told the Times.

Now an employee in the Montclair Public Works Department, Green was a temporary postal employee in 1992-93 in Montclair, according to court papers.