CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Postal workers said letter carriers won't deliver mail if it's not safe to do so, after two postal workers were attacked on the South Side.
A postal worker said he is terrified after he thought he had been shot just blocks from where one of his colleagues was shot and injured the day before on Chicago's South Side.
The incident happened last Friday in the Burnside neighborhood on Chicago's South Side. A Chicago postal worker thought he had been shot when a car pulled up and started firing in his direction. He was hit with paintballs, instead.
The paintball assault happened just 24 hours after a 24-year-old female postal worker had been shot four times during a drive-by shooting at 91st Street and Ellis Avenue.
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The letter carrier is still in the hospital. A $50,000 reward is being offered to find the shooter.
Postal workers and neighbors held a vigil Thursday night for the postal worker who was shot.
Mack Julion with National Association of Letter Carriers, Branch 11 said letter carriers should not walk their route if they feel unsafe.
"Any letter carrier who does not feel safe in any one of these communities then they are not to deliver mail and customers have to pick up their mail," he said. "We are not going to have another situation where the letter carrier is shot down."
The US Postal Inspection Service is investigating both incidents. They also remind the public that an assault against a postal employee is a federal offense.