A $50,000 reward has been offered for information about the murder of a US Postal Service worker who was shot dead in Milwaukee.
Aundre Cross, a 44-year-old father of three, was making Christmas deliveries in the city’s northwest when he was fatally shot just after 4.30pm on 9 December at North 65th St, Milwaukee police say.
Police have not identified any suspects or any motive for the killing.
Cross, an 18-year veteran of the USPS, was described as a “hard-working and loving husband, father and minister” in a fundraising page set up to help pay for Christmas meals for his family.
Surveillance footage of the incident obtained by WISN captured a single gunshot and a suspect running towards a nearby car.
The vehicle matches the description of a silver Audi Q5 SUV with tinted windows on a wanted poster released by the USPS.
The USPS is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of a suspect or suspects.
“Postal Inspectors want justice for the tragic homicide of Letter Carrier Aundre Cross just as much as the city of Milwaukee writ large,” it said in a statment posted to Twitter.
“The suspect(s) should be considered armed and dangerous.”
The killing has stoked fear among the city’s mail workers and prompted an outpouring of grief among Cross’s family, friends and co-workers.
“He can’t watch his kids open presents on Christmas,” the victim’s niece Corneisha Mitchell told Fox6.
“That’s extremely hard. It’s Earth-shattering.”
Friend and co-worker Jyfena Brown told WISN Cross’s murder had shaken the city’s tight-knit postal employees.
“Being a carrier in Milwaukee is very scary now. And you are alone on the route. It’s just literally you and the mail,” Ms Brown told the news site.
In a statement to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said Cross’s death was “alarming”.
“The postal worker in this homicide was a public servant, which makes this crime even more disturbing,” he said.
Milwaukee police are receiving assistance from the Postal Inspection Service and the FBI.
The Milwaukee Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for further information.
