Smiling 48-year-old postal worker brutally shot while delivering mail in Chicago as residents mourn the “mother of the neighborhood”

A postal worker who was considered the “mother of the neighborhood” was shot dead in Chicago.

Octavia Redmond, 48, who brought joy to people along her route with her warm smile, was delivering mail when an unknown gunman drove by and shot her around noon Friday.

According to Chicago police, the shooting occurred on South Harvard Avenue in the city’s South Side.

Redmond was busy delivering mail on her route when the suspect pulled out his gun, fired several shots at her, and then sped down 121st Street.

Neighbors later claimed they heard at least ten shots.

Authorities are still searching for the unknown attacker whose white Dodge Durango was found set on fire on Saturday.

Chicago police are currently considering the possibility that the beloved wife and grandmother was the target of the attack.

According to Fox 32, sources familiar with the matter said the killer was stalking Redmond.

They also claimed that the experienced postal worker was discovered with all her belongings, suggesting that it was a targeted attack and not a robbery.

Shortly before she was shot, Redmond was delivering mail to a neighborhood resident.

Just a few seconds later, he said he heard at least eight shots, according to the resident, who wishes to remain anonymous.

“I came into the living room and looked out the window. That’s when I saw her lying on the floor. I thought that was the postal worker,” he told Fox 32.

After the attack, the 48-year-old was taken to Christ Hospital, where she later succumbed to her injuries and was pronounced dead.

People who live and work in the neighborhood were shocked by the violence, which they said was not typical for this quiet area.

“I’m still looking for my morning smile or my afternoon smile,” said Kim Sanders, who worked in the neighborhood.

“Now I have to get used to someone else,” she told ABC7.

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“That can’t be true, not in this neighborhood, not on this block, because there are a lot of older people living there. And we all know each other,” Sanders told ABC7.

“It breaks my heart because there was a nice lady. She just came up and down the block delivering the mail, she didn’t bother anyone,” the heartbroken woman continued.

Residents along Redmond’s route remember her as someone who always had a smile on her face.

“We all knew her…she was like a mother to the neighborhood,” Sanders said.

“She comes up to me. Sometimes she says, ‘Have a nice day.’ And sometimes she sees the customers and gives them a lollipop or something,” she continued.

“She was a very, very good mailwoman.”

On Friday evening, a flag flew at half-mast outside a union building on the South Side to remember Redmond, whose husband also works as a mail carrier.

To help find the person responsible, the Chicago Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service is offering a reward of up to $250,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killer.

“One of us, a postal worker, takes this as seriously as anything else because that’s why we’re here,” Spencer Block of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service said at a news conference.

Elise Foster, chair of Division 11 of the National Letter Carriers Association (NALC), expressed her outrage at the shocking murder.

“I had the opportunity to meet (Redmond) and talk to her, she’s a great colleague,” she told ABC7.

“Sister Redmond will not go home to her family and I have a problem with that.”

Foster heaped praise on the late postwoman, calling her a “great person.”

The NALC president also noted that greater efforts must be made against those who target federal employees, such as postal workers.

“You have to prosecute them. We are federal employees. How dare you? And you just think you can get away with it?”

Foster continued, “My members are afraid to go to work.”

“We are under attack here in Chicago.”