Murder Of Beloved Postal Carrier Hits Neighborhood Hard
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The loss of a mail carrier murdered over the weekend is being deeply mourned by the customers he served.
They told CBS 2's Derrick Blakley, when Tyjuan Lewis was killed, a bit of Bridgeport died with him.
"He was more than just our mail man," said Ariana Blevins. "He was family to us. More than a friend, he was family."
Lewis was shot in the abdomen Saturday night outside the Roseland home he'd moved into only months ago.
"He was a mail carrier; he was a man with a message," said his sister, Cynthia Lewis. "He wanted to change the world for the better."
For more than 20 years, Lewis worked out of the postal branch at 19th Street and Ashland Avenue.
Kim Lazlo met Lewis when he was a staffer at Bosley Park.
"Every day that I was across the street, he would walk in and say, 'Hey do you need anything?' He just cared from his heart," Lazlo said.
Like once, when Bob Klee was short of cash.
"He came back with two bikes for my daughters," Klee said. "Things like that he did. Not just for me but with everybody who knew him. everybody around here."
Now, his customers are preparing a memorial, and they promise, they'll never forget. They will gather in Bosley Park on Oct. 3 to release balloons with letters addressed to their mail carrier.
"You don't meet people like that everyday," Lazlo said. "And if you did, we'd live in a lot better world than we do today."
