Related:<\/strong> Dept. of Justice Press Release<\/p>\n 02\/22\/18 – In San Antonio this afternoon, 23\u2013year-old Bradley Ahearn admitted to shooting a U.S. Mail carrier last year in Spring Branch, TX, announced United States Attorney John F. Bash; Inspector in Charge Adrian Gonzalez, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Houston Division; and, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus.<\/p>\n Appearing before United States Magistrate Judge Elizabeth S. Chestney, Ahearn pleaded guilty to a total of seven federal charges including aiding and abetting carjacking; aiding and abetting use of a firearm during a crime of violence; aiding and abetting robbery of U.S. Mail; and, four counts of aiding and abetting assault on a federal officer.\u00a0 He faces 20 years in federal prison.<\/p>\n By pleading guilty, Ahearn admitted that on February 11, 2017, he shot a female U.S. Mail carrier as she was delivering mail to a cluster of mailboxes in Spring Branch, TX, because the victim would not would not give him her cell phone.\u00a0 The victim is still recovering from the gunshot that pierced both of her legs.\u00a0 Ahearn left the scene in the victim\u2019s pickup truck while it still contained the victim\u2019s purse and personal effects as well as a considerable amount of U.S. Mail.\u00a0 According to court records, Ahearn\u2019s co-defendant, 27-year-old Sarah Richford, followed Ahearn in a maroon\/brown colored Toyota Venza as he left the scene.<\/p>\n Two days after the shooting, a U.S. Postal Inspector spotted the Toyota Venza at a restaurant near the location of the shooting.\u00a0 The Postal Inspector attempted to initiate an investigative stop, but was unsuccessful as Ahearn fired a handgun in the direction of the federal officer.\u00a0 \u00a0Ahearn admitted to firing his weapon at the U.S. Postal Inspector and another federal agent during a subsequent 19-mile-long, high-speed pursuit.\u00a0 Ahearn and Richford managed to avoid capture. According to court records, on February 14, 2017, employees of a local motel notified investigators of the presence of a large amount of U.S. Mail and a handgun case in one of the motel rooms.\u00a0 Much of the discovered mail, originating from locations across the country, was destined for addresses in the Spring Branch, TX area.\u00a0 That same day, not far from the motel, investigators recovered the abandoned Toyota Venza.\u00a0 From motel surveillance footage, investigators discovered Ahearn, Richford and 41-year-old Piper Lee leave the motel in Lee\u2019s yellow Volkswagen and requested San Antonio police to initiate a stop of the vehicle.\u00a0 While failing to yield to SAPD officers, Ahearn began shooting at the police officers and another high-speed pursuit ensued.\u00a0 Ultimately, the defendants abandoned their vehicle inside a parking garage of a local mall and managed to elude capture by law enforcement.<\/p>\n On February 15, 2017, San Antonio police officers, acting on information provided to investigators, arrested Ahearn, Richford and Lee without incident in a parking lot of a different local motel.\u00a0 All three remain in custody.<\/p>\n Richford is scheduled to have a re-arraignment hearing tomorrow at 2:30pm before Judge Chestney in San Antonio.\u00a0 She faces federal charges of aiding and abetting carjacking; aiding and abetting use of a firearm during a crime of violence; aiding and abetting robbery of U.S. Mail; and, two counts of aiding and abetting assault on a federal officer.<\/p>\n Lee is charged with two counts of aiding and abetting the assault of a federal officer; one count of aiding and abetting use of a firearm during a crime of violence; and, one count of possession of stolen mail.\u00a0 He is currently set for jury selection on August 20, 2018, before Chief U.S. District Judge Orlando L. Garcia.<\/p>\n It is important to note that an indictment is merely a charge and should not be evidence of guilt.\u00a0 A defendant is considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.<\/b><\/p>\n The U.S. Postal Inspection Service together with the San Antonio Police Department, Texas Department of Public Safety, Texas Rangers, Comal County Sheriff\u2019s Office, Bulverde Police Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Marshals Service and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) investigated this case.\u00a0 Assistant United States Attorneys Bettina Richardson and Christina Playton are prosecuting this case on behalf of the Government.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 12\/07\/18 – KENS5 San Antonio – A San Antonio man will spend the next seven years behind bars for his role in the shooting of a Spring Branch postal worker that took place last year. Two other defendants were handed down 20-year sentences for their parts in the shooting incident that involved shooting at police […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","category-theftandfraud","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25002"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25003,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25002\/revisions\/25003"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}San Antonio Man Enters Guilty Plea to Federal Charge in Connection with Shooting of U.S. Mail Carrier<\/h1>\n
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