The man left his station at the counter when he saw the two women enter the post office about 1 p.m., said Bobby Hernandez, a police spokesperson.
"As soon as they walked in, they saw him leave through the back. Then he came back in through the front doors and shot them," Hernandez said.
Each victim was shot once and then the gunman walked away casually, police and witnesses said.
"He exited the post office, went to a tree, looked up in the air and shot himself in the face," Hernandez said.
Police identified the gunman as 65-year-old Jesus Antonio Tamayo. A co-worker, John Parfumorse, said Tamayo was a counter clerk with 41 years experience.
Hernandez said the victims were Tamayo's ex-wife, who he divorced four-years ago, and a family friend.
A regular customer at the post office said she recognized the shooter as a longtime counter clerk.
"I have known him for a long time and he has been nice," said Judy Rivas, a store worker from across the street who said she was at the post office to check her mail. "I even smiled at him as he walked behind me."
Amy Reed, another witness, said she saw people fleeing the post office.
"I heard a lot of commotion," she said. "Dogs were barking, people were screaming and running towards me."
Lorraine Nelson, spokesperson at Jackson Memorial Hospital, said the two women who were shot "are in the operating room in critical condition. They are from the Post Office shooting, that's all we know."
An hour or so after the shootings, the gunman's body remained in the parking lot, covered with a tarp.
The scene is only a few blocks from the oceanside mansion where designer Gianni Versace was shot to death. in July. The suspect, Andrew Cunanan, was later found dead of a self-inflicted wound.
AP PHOTO
Police investigators cover the body of a postal worker after he opened fire yesterday, in a crowded post office, critically wounding his ex-wife and a friend before shooting himself to death.