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Off-Duty Postal Worker Killed In Washington Park Neighborhood Shooting

CHICAGO (CBS) — An off-duty U.S. postal worker was shot and killed while driving on in the Washington Park neighborhood early Sunday.

The shooting happened around 4:20 a.m. in the 5200 block of South Prairie Avenue, police said.

The 46-year-old woman was driving southbound on Prairie Avenue in an Infiniti sport-utility vehicle when someone fired shots from a sidewalk, police said. She continued driving until she struck a pole, police said.

The woman suffered gunshot wounds to her neck and left arm before she was pronounced dead.

The victim was identified as Shaunte Stewart. Members of her postal union said she is the third postal worker to be killed in Chicago this year.

Shaunte Stewart
Shaunte Stewart, 46, was shot and killed in the Washington Park neighborhood. (Credit: Keith M. Richardson, via Facebook)

CBS 2 spoke with a woman who lives nearby, and who did not want to be named.

"To have the kids out here and have this type of stuff going – that's why we go in the house early. We don't even come out here – when it gets dark, we're in the house," she said. "We go in the house."

Police believe Stewart was not the intended target.

No one was in custody Sunday afternoon. Area Central detectives are investigating.

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