The Region : Mail Carrier Shot, Killed

Dale J. Hooker, 39, a 12-year U.S. Postal Service employee, was was shot and killed as she was making her daily rounds in Southwest Los Angeles, police said. A single shotgun blast to the upper body apparently threw Hooker back several feet onto a concrete driveway in at 1911 W. 94th St., where she died a short time later. Although several neighbors said they heard two or three shots, police said they have no witnesses. Hooker was married and the mother of a small child. Kerry Lynn Brown, 25, who was alone in the home at the time of the shooting, was taken into custody and later booked on suspicion of murder, according to Homicide Lt. Joseph Freia. A shotgun owned by Brown’s parents was also recovered. Freia said no motive for the shooting has been established. Brown had failed to answer the phone when police outside the house tried several times to make contact. But before surrendering, he called police in downtown Los Angeles to report what by then they already knew--that the carrier had been shot.