A view shows U.S. postal service mailboxes at a post office in Encinitas, California February 6, 2013.
Authorities in Maryland have identified the letter carrier who was fatally gunned down while on duty outside Washington D.C. on Saturday night as Tyson Jerome Barnette, 26. Following the slaying, officials have yet to make any arrests and are scrambling to find leads and a possible motive behind the homicide.
The U.S. Postal Service has offered a $100,000 reward for any information leading to arrests in connection with the case.
“This tragic incident highlights the need in all operational decisions about how and when mail is delivered to give priority consideration to the safety of these dedicated public servants,” Fredric Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, told the Washington Post.
The murder of letter carriers is extremely rare in the U.S. According to a report in the Associated Press, the last postal worker killed on duty was in Houston in 2010.