Pastor reacts to shooting of church board member killed over stimulus check
A 45-year-old woman, who is a U.S. postal carrier and a board member of a church in Indiana, was shot dead as a resident supposedly hadn’t received a stimulus check from her deliveries. The pastor of her church expressed shock.
A 21-year-old man, identified as Tony Cushingberry, was arrested in the shooting of Angela Summers, a board member at Unity of Indianapolis church in Indianapolis, according to KCRA3.
“It’s real hard. This never happened to us before,” the church’s pastor, the Rev. Michael Davis, was quoted as saying. “To have someone so integral to the community — to have their life taken so quickly and so violently, it’s hard to take that in; it’s hard to understand that.”
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The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department is working with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate the circumstances that led up to the shooting, according to Fox59.
Summers, who leaves behind a teenage daughter, was shot in the chest Monday, and the USPIS had offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case.
“She couldn’t speak, she was hyperventilating,” a neighbor, Alondra Salazar, said, according to The Kansas City Star. “I think she said something about her kid and that’s when I started crying.”
“Angela was quick a laugh,” Davis recalled. “Also she was quick with her opinion. You never questioned what Angela was thinking because she would let you know.”
Responding to the arrest, the pastor added, “It doesn’t stop the tears. It actually brought more today because of the relief on knowing this won’t have to go on and on. There can be some closure.”
The accused faces a life sentence, as Summers was a federal employee on duty. He was charged Wednesday with “second-degree murder, assaulting a federal employee and discharging a firearm during a crime," according to court documents, the Star reported.
Paul Toms, president of the local branch of the National Association of Letter Carriers, said Summers had expressed concerns about certain people living at the house where the shooting occurred, according to WXIN.
He said the person inside the house likely did not receive the family’s stimulus check as all mail was required to be picked up by residents for about two weeks. Summers had notified the residents about it. She had also requested the owners of a small dog to keep it away from her while she delivered mail.
“Yes, there was a history on this for quite a while, as I understand it,” Toms was quoted as saying. “I want something like this to never happen again. It should never happen.”
“The dog is a nasty devil that I’ve actually had to spray — twice,” Summers wrote in a Facebook post days before she was shot, according to the Star. She also said that mail at the residence was stopped until they signed a letter saying they would keep their dog away during her deliveries.
Melissa Hardy, Summers’ friend of 15 years, remembered her as a loving person. “She loved the people on her route. She worried about the older people on her route during this time. She always carried treats, and she would give the dogs treats on her route,” she was quoted as saying.
