Postal Inspectors Investigate During the Weekend
United States Postal Inspectors assembled in Birmingham after Tuesday’s attack against a USPS letter carrier in Tarrant, Alabama, continued investigating the incident over the weekend. Leads from community tips are helping to slowly bring pieces of the puzzle together, but requests for people to come forward with information are ongoing. “It is possible that someone is still holding the key that will help bring all the other pieces together into a well-defined picture,” said U.S. Postal Inspector Tony Robinson.
The U.S. Postal Service is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information or services that lead to the arrest and conviction of the individuals responsible for the Tarrant attack. In fact, this reward is posted at every post office, valid on any postal employee or USPS contractor attacked while conducting their duties. If a USPS employee or contractor dies because of a physical assault, the reward offer goes up to $100,000. The Tarrant letter carrier was released from the hospital Tuesday evening.
The U.S. Postal Service is one of the nation’s largest employers and the standing reward notice is a step USPS takes to help ensure safety for their workers. Tips can be given anonymously by calling 877-876-2455 (use option 5, or say “law enforcement”), or by going online at www.uspis.gov.
Postal Inspectors are federal agents from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), a federal law enforcement agency with an investigative history going all the way back to Benjamin Franklin. Postal inspectors are joined in this investigation by federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA), Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, Birmingham Police Department, and the Tarrant Police Department.
Although several criminal charges could be brought forward, the most basic charge from Title 18, United States Code, Section 111, Assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers or employees, is enhanced to carry up to a twenty year federal prison sentence.
