Mail Carrier Shot to Death in Chatsworth

A mail carrier on his rounds in a rural stretch of Valley Circle Boulevard was shot multiple times and killed Tuesday morning, according to investigators who said they had no motive or suspects.

The victim, identified as 39-year-old Joe Ileto of Chino Hills, was shot several times in the chest and head, authorities said.

Ileto appeared to be returning to his delivery van from a drop in the 9900 block of Valley Circle Boulevard when he was shot with an unknown caliber handgun, said Los Angeles Police Department Capt. Jim Cansler. The police received a “shots fired” call from 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. Ileto’s body was found outside the van, down a driveway toward the house. Paramedics responding to the initial call pronounced him dead at the scene.

Postal Inspector Pamela L. Prince said Ileto was a Filipino American who had worked for the U.S. Postal Service for two years. She said there was no evidence of theft.

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

Postal Service investigators are heading the probe, but LAPD detectives are assisting with the crime scene examination, Prince said.

The U.S. Postal Service immediately offered a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Ileto’s killer.

“We’re looking for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of any person involved in this horrible homicide,” Prince said.

Cansler and Prince said there is no evidence the fatal shooting was related to a shooting incident an hour earlier at a Jewish community center in Granada Hills. Cansler said that the timing and distance between the two incidents argued against a link. Still, he said investigators would be alert to any sign that they are related.

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

Prince said Ileto was not delivering on his regular route. The shooting occurred at a house across the street from Oakwood Cemetery.

Residents of the street said it appeared the killer may have chased the mail carrier down the driveway and shot him to death at a close distance.

Jack Walchi, who lives a few doors away, said Ileto was found by the female resident of the house where he had delivered mail.

Walchi said the street has a lot of traffic, even though many of the homes in the area are on horse-keeping properties.

Although the shooting occurred in the LAPD’s Devonshire Division, detectives from that station were investigating the Granada Hills day-camp shootings, so West Valley detectives responded.