Chicago shooting: Postal worker shot to death in front of West Pullman home ID'd, officials say

A postal worker was shot to death while on the job in front of a South Side home on Friday, officials said.

Chicago police said the shooting happened in the West Pullman neighborhood's 12100-block of South Harvard Avenue just before 11:40 a.m.

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Neighbors who did not want to appear camera told ABC7 they saw a car driving toward the victim's USPS truck before hearing at least 10 shots in broad daylight.

Police said the offender, identified only as male, approached a 48-year-old woman, took out a gun and fired shots. She suffered multiple gunshot wounds to her body.

The woman, a postal worker, was taken to Christ Hospital in very critical condition, Chicago Fire Department officials said.

Police said the victim was later pronounced dead at the hospital. The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office identified her as Octavia Redmond.

Redmond's USPS truck remained on the scene, and police said the offender fled in a vehicle westbound on 121st Street.

Kim Sanders, who works a group home a few blocks down, said she and other neighbors are devastated and shocked that a shooting happened on a block that is normally quiet.

"It can't be true, not in this area, not in this block, because it's a lot of older people. And all of us know each other," Sanders said. "My heart is shattered, because there was a nice lady. She'd just come up and down the block and deliver the mail, didn't bother nobody."

She was like a mother to the neighborhood

Sanders said Redmond always had a smile on her face.

"We all knew her, yes. She was like a mother to the neighborhood," Sanders said. "She'll walk up to me. She's like, 'Have a good day,' sometimes. And she'll see the clients and sometimes give them a sucker or something. Like, she was a very, very good mail lady."

U.S. Postal Inspection Service Chicago Division inspectors are responding and offering a reward up to $250,000 for information leading to the shooter's arrest and conviction.

There's no word yet on a motive. Area Two detectives are investigating.

Authorities did not immediately provide further information about the shooting.

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