INDIANAPOLIS—An Indianapolis man who pleaded guilty to fatally shooting a U.S. Postal Service mail carrier has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison, prosecutors said.
Tony Cushingberry, 24, was sentenced Wednesday after pleading guilty in July 2022 to second-degree murder and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Prosecutors said Cushingberry was sitting on his porch on April 27, 2020, when he watched postal carrier Angela Summers, 45, of Indianapolis, walk past his home and proceed to the next residence.
According to court records, Cushingberry was upset because his postal deliveries had been suspended due to an aggressive dog at his home.
After Summers walked past his home, prosecutors said Cushingberry “aggressively approached” her on his neighbor’s porch and demanded his mail several times. He continued pursuing Summers while displaying a handgun before he pulled the gun from his waistband and shot her in the chest from several feet away.
Summers collapsed on the porch and was pronounced dead at a hospital. Cushingberry fled the scene and stashed the gun in a nearby residence’s detached garage, but he was later arrested.
“Angela Summers was a beloved family member and public servant, and she should be alive today. She was taken from those who cared for her by the defendant’s evil decision to gun her down while she was simply doing her job,” U.S. Attorney Zachary A. Myers said Thursday in a news release.
