AndrewBlakeDublin, Ohio – Ohio postal worker DeShaune Stewart is accused of showing up to work naked and then gunning down one Post Office official and crushing the skull of another after learning that he was about to get fired.
Stewart, 24, is charged with killing his supervisor at a post office in Dublin and then killing the Dublin postmaster outside the apartment complex she lived in Columbus, according to Fox News.
In both instances, Stewart was naked and carrying a firearm. The murders were about three hours and four miles apart, police said.
The day started when Stewart arrived at the Dublin po office at about 4:30 a.m., which was three hours early. He approached his supervisor, Lance Herrera-Dempsey, 52, and shot him twice.
According to witnesses, Herrera-Dempsey asked, “What the hell?” when he saw Stewart naked.
Three hours later, Stewart was seen chasing postmaster Ginger Ballard, 52, around in a parking lot. He threw Ballard to the pavement and crushed her skull, according to the Columbus Post-Dispatch.
Police said that Stewart had waited inside his car outside Ballard’s home for nearly three hours.
Stewart was facing discipline action for unspecified workplace violations, Dublin Police Lt. Steve Farmer told the Columbus Post-Dispatch.
Police said that Stewart targeted his superiors and no one else. Stewart surrendered to officers when confronted.
Columbus Police Sgt. David Sicilian said the killings were “workplace violence” and said Stewart had retaliated against the people he accused of being behind his pending dismissal from the U.S. Postal Service.
The newspaper reported that Stewart was charged by Dublin police with premeditated aggravated murder for killing Herrera-Dempsey. Columbus police charged him with murder in the death of Ballard.
Columbus Mayor Andrew J. Ginther said in a statement: “I am deeply saddened and angered at the most recent homicide in our city. At a time when many gather together to celebrate new beginnings, yet another family must struggle with a heartbreaking loss. We must guard against treating this loss of human life as a mere statistic. This homicide is just as tragic as the first one of 2017.”