COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A disgruntled mail carrier facing dismissal has been charged with aggravated murder for fatally shooting his supervisor at a suburban Ohio post office and with murder for killing a postmaster outside of her apartment complex.
Twenty-four-year-old DeShaune Stewart, of Columbus, was naked during both slayings Saturday morning inside the Dublin post office and at an apartment complex in nearby Columbus, police said.
Stewart is charged with killing 52-year-old Lance Dempsey at the post office just before 4:30 a.m. Stewart had been scheduled to walk his mail route on Saturday, Columbus homicide Sgt. David Sicilian said.
Columbus police dispatchers received a 911 call around 7:15 a.m. about a man with a gun chasing a woman outside the apartment complex, about 4 miles (6 kilometers) from the post office. Patrol officers arrested Stewart and recovered a handgun after he tried to run away.
The body of the postmaster, Ginger Ballard, 53, was found lying between two vehicles. A police affidavit filed with the murder charge in Franklin County Municipal Court said Ballard died instantly of blunt-force trauma to the head after being thrown to the ground, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
Police earlier described Ballard as a postal inspector. The Dispatch has reported that documents found online refer to her as the Dublin postmaster.
Sicilian described the slaying to reporters earlier Saturday as "workplace violence" involving a suspect who retaliated against two people involved in his pending dismissal from the U.S. Postal Service.
