Post Office to Bear Name of Slain Carrier Joseph Ileto

A Chino Hills post office will be named for the postal worker slain in Chatsworth following the August shooting attack on children and workers at the Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills.

The Joseph Ileto Post Office is scheduled to be dedicated following completion of construction in February, officials said. The 39-year-old postal worker, who was killed while substituting for the regular mail carrier on a route in the northwest Valley, had lived in the San Bernardino County community with his brother and other family members.

A congressional measure written by Rep. Gary Miller (R-Diamond Bar) was unanimously approved Monday by the House of Representatives. U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is scheduled to carry the bill for passage by the Senate in January.

The naming of the new post office in Ileto’s hometown “seemed like a good match,” said John Cusey, spokesman for Miller, who originated the proposal. The congressman “contacted the family and they were very happy to have that happen,” Cusey said. The post office is being built at 14071 Peyton Drive.

Joseph Santos Ileto, a Filipino American, was gunned down Aug. 10, hit by nine bullets as he stopped at the driveway of a home on a quiet street in Chatsworth. The alleged killer, Buford O. Furrow Jr., reportedly confessed to authorities that he shot the mailman because he was a nonwhite, government employee.

Furrow, a self-described white supremacist who lived in Washington, is accused of wounding three young boys, a teenage camp counselor and a 68-year-old receptionist at the Jewish center an hour before Ileto’s slaying.

Furrow is awaiting trial in Los Angeles.