Authorities in Iowa arrested a 15-year-old boy accused of fatally shooting a U.S. Postal Service carrier in July in the West Pullman neighborhood.
The boy allegedly shot Octavia Redmond, 48, multiple times at close range near South Harvard Avenue and West 122nd Street about 11:40 a.m. on July 19 while Redmond was delivering mail, according to Chicago police and the law enforcement arm of the Postal Service.
“Redmond was a wife and mother and is remembered as a staple to the postal customers she served,” said a Postal Service news release on Tuesday.
A joint investigation by the Postal Service and the Chicago Police Department identified the boy, who was not named, as a suspect in the homicide.
Chicago police and a U.S. Marshals Service fugitive task force arrested the boy in Cedar Rapids on Monday. He was extradited to Chicago and subsequently charged as a juvenile with felony first-degree murder, authorities said.
The Postal Service said the boy exited a stolen white Dodge Durango before he approached Redmond and shot her. The boy fled in the SUV, which was found by law enforcement the day after the shooting.
Redmond was rushed to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn where she was pronounced dead, police said.
On the day of the shooting, those who lived near the scene described Redmond as a good-natured and friendly mail carrier.
“She was a really nice lady,” said resident Todd Lindberg, 56. “(She) did her job. She would go out of her way. If a letter came in after she passed your house she’d come back.”
Chicago-area mail carriers have voiced concerns for their safety as armed robberies of carriers for packages and arrow keys have skyrocketed in recent years.
“There is no place for this type of senseless violence,” Inspector in Charge of the Chicago division of the Postal Service law enforcement arm, Ruth Mendonça, said in the Postal Service news release. “When members of our postal family are targeted, postal inspectors will not rest until justice is delivered on behalf of the victims, their families, and our postal community.”
The boy was ordered held in custody during a hearing Tuesday before a Cook County juvenile court judge. His next scheduled court date is Nov. 1.
