An Indianapolis Man Was Desperate For His Mail. So He Shot a United States Postal Service Employee in Her Chest.

An Indianapolis man has pleaded guilty to killing a United States Postal Service employee by shooting her.

Federal prosecutors in Indiana said Tony Cushingberry, 24, will spend 30 years behind bars for the murder of Angela Summers on April 27, 2020.

“Angela Summers was a beloved family member and public servant, and she should be alive today. She was taken from those who cared for her by the defendant’s evil decision to gun her down while she was simply doing her job,” said Zachary A. Myers, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana.

According to court documents, shortly before 4 p.m. on the day of the deadly encounter, officers with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department responded to a call about a person shot.

At the scene, the officers found USPS letter carrier Summers laying on the front porch of a residence suffering a gunshot wound to the chest. She was rushed to an area hospital and died from her injuries around an hour and a half later.

An investigation determined Cushingberry was on his porch when Summers was delivering mail and walked past his home. According to federal prosecutors, “Cushingberry aggressively approached Summers on the neighbor’s porch and demanded his mail several times” and then “continued to pursue Summers while displaying a handgun, eventually pulling it from the right side of his waistband and shooting Summers in the chest from several feet away.”

The defendant then fled the scene and hid the firearm in a garage at a nearby residence.

A search of Cushingberry’s home later that day turned up evidence that included boxes of ammunition for a Glock, including the same brand and caliber of fired cartridge casings found at the scene.

“Our communities should not have to live in fear of every conflict leading to gun violence," Myers said about the case. "No term of imprisonment will bring Angela back, but the sentence imposed today demonstrates that those who kill will face judgment and accountability."