Masked man flashed gun at Tewksbury postal worker, prompting large search

TEWKSBURY – Police have spent hours Tuesday searching several Tewksbury neighborhoods after a masked man in a stolen car flashed a gun at a postal worker.

It happened just after 11 a.m. on Shawsheen Street.

Gun pointed at Tewksbury postal carrier

Officers responded after the female U.S. Postal Service worker had a gun pointed at her. When they arrived, police saw a red car being driven at a high rate of speed on Whipple Road.

Tewksbury police followed the car onto Tomahawk Drive. That's where the driver jumped out of the car and ran off.

Officers scoured the area of Nightengale Lane where the man was last seen, along with surrounding neighborhoods.

Massachusetts State Police and a Northeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council (NEMLEC) SWAT team joined the search. Police also used drones and K-9s to search for the suspect.

People who live in the area received an automated message from police altering them to the search.

Tewksbury police release suspect description

Later in the afternoon, a Tewksbury police K-9 unit found a gun under a shed on Grasshopper Lane. The weapon likely belongs to the suspect, police said.

Despite the largescale search, no arrest has been made.

"We have deployed every asset at our disposal to find this individual, including a door to door search in the area he was last seen," Tewksbury Police Chief Ryan Columbus said. "However he has not been located at this time. The suspect's motives are part of an ongoing investigation."

According to Tewksbury police, the suspect is described as a Black man, possibly in his late teens or early 20s. The man was wearing a dark-colored sweatshirt and mask.