15-year-old accused of fatally shooting postal worker days after another mailman threatened with knife

A 15-year-old was arrested and charged with murder Tuesday for allegedly fatally shooting a Postal Service worker in Chicago in July. The arrest comes just days after a Michigan man allegedly threatened a postal worker with a knife.

The teen, whose name was not released by police, allegedly shot mail carrier Octavia Redmond, 48, and fled in a stolen Dodge Durango, according to the Postal Inspection Service. Remond later died from her injuries.

“There is no place for this senseless violence,” the detective in charge of the Chicago division, Ruth M. Mendonça, said in a statement. “When members of our postal family are targeted, postal inspectors will only intervene when justice is served on behalf of the victims, their families and our postal community. »

The release added that Redmond was “a wife and mother and is remembered as a fixture for the postal customers she served.”

A GoFundMe page set up by relatives describes Redmond as the “queen of our family.”

The Chicago Police Department and the U.S. Marshals Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force arrested the suspected shooter Monday in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the department said.

The teenager appeared in juvenile court on Tuesday and was remanded in custody, according to The New York Times. It is not known if the youth has an attorney.

He is due in court on November 1.

The arrest comes after Michigan police charged a Detroit-area man, Russell Frank Valleu, 61, on Friday with lunging at a black postal worker with a knife in anger after receiving political mail from Kamala Harris.

The mailman called for help around 5 p.m., telling operators that the man was angry about the Harris campaign ads and that he appeared drunk, according to a police statement seen by Law and crime.

Valleu has a decades-long history of criminal arrests and convictions, ranging from aggravated stalking to domestic violence to gun possession by a felon, according to public records viewed by The Independent.

“The defendant was allegedly upset about receiving mail about presidential candidate Kamala Harris and said he did not want this ‘black bitch’ in his mailbox,” the Oakland County District Attorney said. , Karen McDonald, in a press release.

The mailman then pushed the man away with pepper spray, according to the prosecutor.

“Regardless of our political beliefs, no one should be attacked or threatened because of their race or for doing their job,” McDonald added in his statement.