Chicago postal worker Octavia Redmond shot dead, USPS offers $250,000 reward – NBC Chicago

U.S. Postal Service employees expressed sadness and frustration Friday after a letter carrier was shot and killed while delivering mail in the West Pullman neighborhood on the south side of Chicago.

The postal worker was outside a home and near her mail truck in the 12100 block of South Harvard Avenue before 11:40 a.m. when an unknown man approached her and opened fire, hitting her multiple times. The Cook County coroner’s officer later identified her as Octavia Redmond.

After her death, Redmond’s colleagues gathered outside Advocate Christ Medical Center and pressed for answers.

Redmond’s close friends and colleagues said she was a mother of three and talked about quitting the job.

“Octavia Sawyer Redmond was the sweetest, kindest person who ever lived,” said her friend Kenia Wooden.

Friday’s fatal shooting was another act of violence against postal workers; Redmond is at least the third death nationwide this year. In Chicago, five armed robberies of USPS employees have been reported since December.

That is why the postmen’s union is calling for additional security measures.

“I want to see some protection for the mail carriers out there,” said Elise Foster of the mail carriers union. “I don’t care what it costs. If you have to walk every block with them to make sure they get home safe, that’s exactly what needs to happen.”

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 suspect. Anyone with information on a possible responsible person is asked to call the agency’s 24-hour tip line at 877-876-2455.

All calls to the hotline are treated with strict confidentiality, the authority said in a statement.