Amid on Rise in Postal Carrier Robberies, Defendant Sentenced to Eleven Years
A defendant in Memphis, Tennessee has been sentenced to eleven years in federal prison after he pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated assault of a federal employee, two counts of robbery of a postal employee, and one count of brandishing a firearm in relation to a crime of violence.
According to a release from the US postal Inspection Service, on October 4, 2021, Jonathan Holmes parked his car in front of a postal carrier’s vehicle and pointed a gun at the worker. The worker fled in his vehicle and Holmes moved on. Roughly 15 minutes later, Holmes approached a second carrier and demanded their packages at gun point. About 15 minutes later, Holmes approached a third carrier and robbed them of several packages.
The Postal Inspection Service investigated the case. U.S. District Court Judge sentenced Holmes on August 8, 2023.
“The sentence imposed in this case exemplifies the unending dedication of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service to protect the employees of the United States Postal Service. When our employees are victims of robberies and assaults, we do not stop until we identify those responsible,” said Tommy D. Coke, Inspector in Charge of the Atlanta Division of the United States Postal Inspection Service. “We are proud of the work done by the postal inspectors, and we are very pleased with the sentence, which we feel speaks to the gravity of the offense.”
Robberies against postal workers increased 78 percent in 2022. The Postal Service reported 412 robberies against letter carriers that year. So far in 2023, 305 incidents have been reported.
Just last week, a postal worker in Chicago was ambushed by armed robbers. The assault was caught on a home surveillance camera. Chicago police said the investigation is ongoing and no one is currently in custody. Earlier in the month, a postal worker on the northside of Chicago was shot during an armed robbery.
On Tuesday, the Illinois Association of Letter Carries hosted a rally in support of postal worker safety.
“Letter carriers are facing violent attacks at an alarming rate. The agency’s unofficial motto 'Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds' does not include threats of deadly physical violence. That’s what letter carriers have had to contend with. In just the past week, robbers assaulted a pair of letter carriers in the city and one in the suburbs, shooting and wounding one letter carrier. Postal carriers now dread coming to work. They fear becoming the next victim,” the association said in a statement.
Illinois Congressman Danny Davis attended the rally amidst growing attention on the issue from capitol hill. On the same day as the rally, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy testified before Congress on postal issues and was pressed by lawmakers on the growing trend of mail-related crimes.
DeJoy outlined a plan for increasing security measures against robberies and fraud saying it was the issue he receives the “largest number of phone calls” about. The plan includes adding new locks on mailboxes nationwide, incorporating a double-validation key system for letter carriers, thereby making it harder for criminals to break into mailboxes, and hardening the physical infrastructure of standalone blue collection boxes and cluster mailboxes.