COLLIER TOWNSHIP, Pa. — A U.S. Postal Service worker died Thursday after being shot by a man who believed that the postal worker had poisoned his family previously when they were neighbors, according to WPXI-TV and federal officials.
Around 10 a.m., authorities found Louis Vignone, 58, dead in his marked USPS vehicle near the intersection of Columbia and Suburban avenues. The letter carrier had been shot multiple times, including once in the head, while working in his USPS uniform, according to officials with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
Shortly after the shooting, investigators said Eric M. Kortz, 53, went to the Carnegie Borough Police Department and told officers that he had shot someone and he wanted to turn himself in. He was taken to Allegheny County Police Department headquarters, where he was interviewed by a detective and a U.S. postal inspector.
Kortz admitted to having shot Vignone, authorities said. Investigators said he claimed he shot Vignone because he believed that Vignone and Vignone’s family had poisoned him and his family with cyanide when they were neighbors. Vignone and his family had moved three years earlier to get away from Kortz, who was becoming increasingly paranoid and obsessed with them, according to WPXI.
Kortz told investigators that he knew where Vignone worked and found him on his mail route on Thursday. He said he drove toward Vignone’s USPS vehicle and stopped in front of it before telling Vignone that he “went to put some bullets in him.” Authorities said they found a firearm and seven spent shell casings in a yard near Vignone’s USPS vehicle.
Kortz said he dropped the firearm after the shooting and drove to the Carnegie Borough Police Department.
Authorities charged Kortz with murder of an employee of the United States and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime, according to WPXI. The news station reported he appeared “expressionless” Thursday evening while appearing virtually in court.
He is next scheduled to appear before a judge Tuesday, according to WPXI.
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