A veteran postal worker was fatally stabbed in Oakland, California, on Wednesday as she walked home from her job.
Seventy-one-year-old Dilma Spruill was attacked on the street and stabbed multiple times, KTVU reported Thursday, adding she died at the scene and a motive remains unknown.
Following the incident, law enforcement arrested 28-year-old Wilber Winchester, whom the Daily Mail described as being homeless.
In a press release, the Oakland Police Department gave more details about the suspect:
The Oakland Police Department (OPD) arrested Wilbert Winchester for the homicide of Dilma Franks-Spruill, and an attempted homicide of another individual. Both of the incidents occurred in the city of Oakland. Winchester is also being investigated in connection to several other violent assaults throughout Oakland.
The department noted the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office charged the suspect with murder and attempted murder in the case.
“Three houses away. She was almost home, but she’s not coming home,” Spruill’s son, Miles, told reporters:
He also offered a message to the suspect, stating, “I bid you peace and I bid you farewell. You took my best friend. You took the only last living birth parent that I have.”
The incident happened around 12:30 a.m. after Spruill finished her shift at work and was on her way home.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Postal Service expressed its sadness at the loss, stating, “Dilma beamed with energy, joy and brought light to all who had the pleasure to know and work alongside her. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family and her co-workers at this time.”
According to ABC 7, Winchester previously served three years for elder abuse.
Video footage shows community members gathering to pay their respects to their beloved neighbor:
“Everything is missing, everything. I’m numb. I’m still sick to my stomach. I don’t sleep,” Miles said, adding he wanted to “live her legacy and spirit because that’s what she would want me to do.”
As the crime wave sweeps across President Joe Biden’s (D) America, citizens are “more likely now than at any time over the past five decades to say there is more crime in their local area than there was a year ago,” Gallup reported in October.
“The 56% of U.S. adults who report an increase in crime where they live marks a five-percentage-point uptick since last year and is the highest by two points in Gallup’s trend dating back to 1972,” the article read.
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