The family of a mailman slain while on his route in Landover, Md., last year is expected to join postal carriers for a candlelight vigil in his memory this weekend.
They’re planning to gather Sunday at Reed Street and Jutewood Avenue in Landover, where 26-year-old Tyson Jerome Barnette was fatally shot while delivering mail at 7:20 p.m. Nov. 23, well after dark.
Alton Branson, a retired letter carrier organizing the vigil, said the event is aimed at urging people with any information about Barnette’s killing to come forward.
Nationwide, Barnette was the seventh mail carrier whose death has been reported as a homicide in the line of duty since 2010, according to data provided by the Postal Inspection Service in response to a records request from The Washington Post. Five mail carriers were killed in 2010 in South Carolina, Tennessee, Florida and California. One was killed in Texas six months before Barnette.
