A veteran postal worker was fatally shot while delivering mail in Milwaukee on Friday, according to police.
The letter carrier has been identified as Aundre Cross, a 44-year-old father of four. Milwaukee police said they are looking for suspects with the help of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the FBI in a homicide investigation.
At around 5:59 p.m., officers responded to an injured person on the 5000 block of North 65th Street, the Milwaukee Police Department said in a statement. The victim had sustained a gunshot wound in an incident a little more than an hour earlier and he was pronounced dead at the scene by the Milwaukee Fire Department.
“The Milwaukee Police Department sends our sincere condolences to the victim’s family and to the USPS for the loss of their member,” the department said.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which stressed that the “safety and security of Postal employees is a top priority,” is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of any suspects.
Milwaukee police said the suspect vehicle is described as a silver Audi Q5 SUV with tinted windows, and the suspect or suspects should be considered armed and dangerous.
Cross was an on-duty U.S. postal carrier with more than 18 years of service, according to authorities.
“The shooting death of a Milwaukee postal worker is alarming. My thoughts are with the victim’s family and colleagues,” Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said in a tweet. “The postal worker in this homicide was a public servant, which makes this crime even more disturbing.”
A former co-worker to Cross, who asked to be identified as Tia R., spoke fondly of him in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“He was a mentor to everybody,” she told the news outlet. “He was always ready with a prayer, a joke or a story. He never let anybody leave (any situation) without a smile on their face.”