A postal worker was shot dead on Friday while working on her route in Chicago, according to officials.
Octavia Redmond, 48, of Chicago, was shot at around 11.40pm local time by an unknown shooter, who then jumped in a vehicle and sped away, according to police.
Redmond suffered several gunshot wounds, including to her chest, and was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in critical condition. She was later pronounced dead at 12.20pm, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
According to Fox 32, the killer may have trailed Redmond before attacking her. The attacker’s white Dodge Durango was discovered torched on Saturday.
Redmond had delivered mail along the block where she was shot for around two years.
Witness Meda Robinson, 68, was in her house when she heard about 10 shots. She said she often stopped to chat with Redmond.
“She was a really nice person, she was a beautiful person,” Robinson told the Chicago Sun-Times. “I can’t understand who would come at her like that.”
The motive for the attack has not been established and no arrests have yet been made.
US Postal inspectors are investigating alongside police, according to spokesperson Michael Martel, and a $250,000 reward has been offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the attacker.
The US Rep Jonathan Jackson made a statement on Saturday, calling for a summit with law enforcement agencies to address the “crisis” of postal workers killed or assaulted on the job.
Redmond was a “wife, mother, grandmother, and citizen who was simply going about her normal day on the job to contribute to what makes our city work for all of us,” said Jackson.
“We must embrace the Redmond family and take immediate action to assure Chicago postal workers that we will do what it takes to make their jobs safer,” Jackson wrote.
There has been growing concern about an increase in crimes against postal workers. The number of postal carriers robbed in 2023 rose on the previous year and the number of injuries nearly doubled, despite USPS pledging a crackdown.
The number of postal workers who were injured nearly doubled.
An armed robbery of a postal worker was caught on CCTV in California in May, and last month a Pennsylvania postal worker needed 16 stitches after a dog attack.
