Chicago Shooting: Suspects shoot, attempt to rob postal carrier in Kilbourn Park
CHICAGO (CBS) – A Chicago mail carrier is expected to survive after he was shot during an attempted robbery Tuesday afternoon on the city's Northwest Side.
The shooting happened in broad daylight on a residential street in the Kilbourn Park neighborhood.
The 52-year-old victim was approached by two unknown male offenders who attempted to take his belongings around 3:30 p.m. in the 3200 block of North Kildare Avenue, near School Street.
One of the offenders fired a gun and struck the victim in the leg, Chicago Police said. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service has confirmed the victim is a mail carrier.
The suspects' white Kia was caught on video as it fled the scene. Wednesday morning, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service announced the Kia had been recovered, and was being processed for evidence.
Meantime, shell casings were left on steps nearby on Kildare Avenue after the shooting Tuesday afternoon.
Police and postal trucks hastily parked in the middle of the residential block as neighbors rushed out to help the postal worker - standing by as police set up their perimeter.
The mailman was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center and initially reported in critical condition. It was later learned the carrier's condition had stabilized.
CBS 2's Sara Machi talked Tuesday evening with Elise Foster, vice president of the National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 11. She said the doctors told her their member was out of surgery late Tuesday and is expected to survive.
But Foster - and neighbors near this shooting – told us they're concerned, but not surprised.
"When the ambulance came around, you could just like hear him screaming, like the pain," said neighbor Ali Sanchez.
Sanchez was home when the shooting happened. Their security camera captured a few frames of the mailman leaving their home - just moments before he was shot.
"I doubt he put up any kind of resistance whatsoever," said Deborah Hamilton. "He probably said, 'Take it all,' and still, they shot him."
Hamilton said her dad was a letter carrier for about 20 years - and she is concerned by the violence.
"They're basically just prey," Hamilton said. "They have nothing to defend themselves."
It's a concern echoed by other carriers.
"We don't know what is going to take for people to listen to us that we need help out here on the streets," said Foster.
As police cleared out the scene, and mail deliveries were taken in as evidence, neighbors said they worry there's not much they can do.
"Only God protects me," said Vielea Lancheco. "I pray for every time I leave my house, and I pray for my children too."
The USPIS said it is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspects.
The agency said a second armed robbery of a postal worker occurred in the 1800 block of North Sawyer Avenue around 3:44 p.m., about three miles south of where the other worker was shot. It did not say whether the second robbery was committed by the same suspect who shot the other postal worker on Kildare Avenue.
The Sawyer Avenue scene – on the border of Logan Square and Humboldt Park – is about 15 minutes and three miles away from the Kildare Avenue scene.
The agency also released a video in which the sound of a gunshot is heard, and the suspect vehicle is seen driving away just seconds later. The USPIS released a photo of a suspect vehicle, a stolen white Kia sedan with the Illinois license plate BF73931.
Anyone with information on the incident is asked to call the U.S. Postal Inspection Service at 1-877-876-2455 and say "law enforcement." All information will be kept strictly confidential.