Mail Carrier Fatally Shot on Delivery Route in Chatsworth

A mail carrier on his rounds in a rural stretch of Chatsworth was shot to death Tuesday morning, according to investigators, who said they had no suspects or idea of a motive in the case.

The victim, identified as 39-year-old Joe Ileto of Chino Hills, apparently was returning to his delivery van from a mail drop in the 9900 block of Valley Circle Boulevard when he was shot several times with a handgun, said Los Angeles Police Capt. Jim Cansler.

Police were called by a neighbor at 11:53 a.m.

“It looks like he had delivered the mail to the mailbox at the end of the street and was outside his vehicle or inside, we don’t know, when he was accosted by an assailant and shots were fired,” Cansler said, adding that the body was found in a driveway. Paramedics declared Ileto dead at the scene.

Postal Inspector Pamela L. Prince said he was a Filipino American who had worked for the Postal Service for two years.

She added that there was no evidence of any theft.

Ileto had just begun his mail route. His van, loaded with undelivered mail, stood on the street with its emergency lights blinking five hours after the shooting.

The Postal Service immediately offered a reward of up to $100,000 for the arrest of any person involved in “this horrible homicide,” Prince said.

Cansler and Prince said there is no evidence that the slaying was connected to a gun attack an hour earlier at the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills.

Cansler said the timing and distance between the two incidents argued against a link.

Still, he said, investigators would be alert for any evidence that the crimes are related.

“We’ll look at that, but we don’t think they are tied together,” Cansler said.

Prince said the letter carrier was delivering mail on an auxiliary route, which means he was not on his regular rounds.

The shooting occurred at a house across the street from Oakwood Memorial Park.

Residents of the street said the killer may have chased the mail carrier down the driveway and shot him at close range.

Jack Walchi, who lives a few doors away, said Valley Circle is heavily traveled.