Maryland Letter Carrier Gunned Down on Duty

Postal officials are offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the murder of a Maryland letter carrier gunned down as he delivered the mail. Police say Tyson Barnette, 26, was shot multiple times while on duty Saturday evening in Landover, and they have yet to identify a suspect or motive, reports the Washington Post. He was delivering mail after sunset on a street with few lights and union officials say they have long warned about understaffing forcing letter carriers to work after dark.

"I'm outraged. I'm more than angry. It didn't have to happen," the chief of a nearby branch of the National Association of Letter Carriers tells USA Today. "It's bound to happen again if something is not done about it; it is inherently dangerous to deliver mail in the dark." At a vigil for Barnette last night, fellow letter carriers described him as a wonderful person and said what happened to him could have happened to any of them. (More postal worker stories.)