Postal Inspectors Offer Reward for Mail Carrier Shot and Killed on the Job

Chicago, IL (WorkersCompensation.com) – Postal inspectors are offering a $250,000 reward for any information about who shot and killed a postal worker in West Pullman on July 19.

Police said witnesses saw a car drive toward the USPS truck on Friday around 11:40 a.m. A male suspect then approached the female letter carrier, took out a gun and fired as many as 10 shots. The letter carrier suffered multiple gunshot wounds to her body, officials said.

Police identified the victim as Octavia Redmond. She was taken to Christ Hospital in Chicago, officials said, but later died as a result of her injuries.

Redmond’s mail truck remained at the scene, officials said, but the offender fled the scene in his vehicle. On Sunday, the Dodge Durango that the suspect fled in was found several blocks away. Officers were on the scene with the U.S. Postal Police when they found the car in a field. It had been set on fire. Police said there was not much evidence to be gathered from the car’s remains because of the fire.

Chicago law enforcement is working with the assumption that Redmond was targeted. Sources familiar with the incident told Fox 32 the veteran postal worker was discovered with all of her possessions, suggesting that the attack was not a robbery.

Kim Sanders, who also worked in the area, told ABC7, the block where Redmond was shot was normally quiet. Others in the neighborhood are shocked that the shooting happened.

"It can't be true, not in this area, not in this block, because it's a lot of older people. And all of us know each other," Sanders told news outlets. "My heart is shattered, because there was a nice lady. She'd just come up and down the block and deliver the mail, didn't bother nobody."

Sanders said Redmond was well-known in the neighborhood.

"We all knew her, yes. She was like a mother to the neighborhood," Sanders said. "She'll walk up to me. She's like, 'Have a good day,' sometimes. And she'll see the clients and sometimes give them a sucker or something. Like, she was a very, very good mail lady."

Redmond’s shooting is the latest in a string of violent attacks on postal workers in Chicago. Last week, officials said, an armed robbery of a letter carrier was caught on camera. That robbery came after back-to-back robberies of USPS earlier in the month.

The president of the letter carriers union in Chicago said the attacks were preventable.

"We've been asking for help," Elise Foster with the National Association of Letter Carriers, Branch 11, told media outlets. “We've been asking for safety measures. It should not come to this point to get what we need while we are out here delivering our mail." 

Foster said Redmond was a great co-worker.

“I had the opportunity to meet with [Redmond] and talk to her, she’s a great co-worker,"  she told ABC7. “Sister Redmond will not be going home to her family and I have a problem with that.”

Foster also said she felt like greater efforts needed to be taken against those who target federal employees like postal workers.

“They need to be prosecuting them. We are federal employees. How dare you? And you just think you can get away with it?” Foster said. “My members are scared to go to work. We are under attack here in Chicago.”

On Friday night, a flag hung at half-staff outside a South Side union hall to commemorate Redmond, whose husband also works as a mail carrier.

In an effort to help find the person responsible, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service Chicago Division is offering a reward up to $250,000 for information leading to the murderer's arrest and conviction.

'One of our own, a postal employee, we take it as seriously as anything, because this is why we're here,' Spencer Block with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service said at a press conference.

There are multiple rewards for information on these attacks, including $250,000 from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service Chicago Division for information leading to the murderer’s arrest and conviction.

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