Teen charged with murder in shooting death of Chicago postal worker Octavia Redmond
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A 15-year-old boy has been charged in the shooting death of a postal worker in July in the West Pullman neighborhood.
Chicago police said the boy was arrested Monday in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, after he was identified as the person who shot and killed 48-year-old Octavia Redmond on July 19.
The boy has been extradited back to Chicago to face one count of first-degree murder. Court information was not immediately available.
Redmond was shot multiple times while delivering mail near 121st and Harvard around 11:40 a.m. on July 19. She was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.
The shooter's getaway vehicle later was found abandoned and torched in the middle of a field in the 8900 block of South Holland Avenue.
In August, police released surveillance video footage of the shooting, showing the shooter getting into a stolen Dodge Durango in the 7000 block of South Campbell Avenue before the shooting. A second video clip showed a man getting out of the Durango near 121st and Harvard, running across the street and out of view of the camera, then getting back into the vehicle before it drives away.
Ruth M. Mendonça, Inspector in Charge of the Chicago Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, said the teen's arrest is "the first step in securing justice for Mrs. Redmond."
"There is no place for this type of senseless violence. 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," Mendonça said in a statement.
People who live in West Pullman have said Redmond was a beloved fixture in the neighborhood.
"My heart is shattered, because it was a nice lady," Kim Sanders said on the day of the shooting. "She never bothered anybody."
Sanders said would see Redmond's smiling face on her block every day.
"She would just come up and down the block, and just deliver the mail. Didn't bother nobody. So it's like it's devastating to the area," Sanders said.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service had been offering a reward of up to $250,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction. It was not clear if the arrest in Redmond's murder was the result of a tip.