FORT WORTH, Texas — A man convicted of robbing a United State Postal Service (USPS) employee at gunpoint in Fort Worth was sentenced to more than five years in prison, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham announced.
Abdirashid Omar, 22, was charged in May 2022. He pleaded guilty the following month to robbery of property of the United States.
In plea papers, Omar admitted to robbing a USPS letter carrier during her rounds in Fort Worth on April 11, 2022.
The postal employee told police she was walking down the driveway of a home when Omar, who dressed in a black hoodie and blue surgical mask, grabbed her, pushed her into a fence, pressed a handgun into her abdomen and took USPS equipment from her.
According to court documents, law enforcement located surveillance video that captured Omar’s vehicle following the carrier to various homes and then fleeing the area at a high rate of speed.
Officials said postal inspectors located Omar’s vehicle and established surveillance that spotted the vehicle visiting multiple post offices in the days following the robbery.
About a week later, police searched Omar’s vehicle and his home, locating stolen U.S. Mail, stolen checks and a setup in which checks were being “washed” – meaning they were placed into a liquid substance to have the ink removed.
In July 2022, WFAA talked to several Fort Worth businesses owners who said a thief tried to steal tens of thousands of dollars by taking and altering checks they had mailed.
Jon Bonnell, the executive chef and owner at Bonnell’s Restaurant Group, said he mailed 16 checks in late May, and that his wife noticed one that was for more than $25,000 had been altered with a new name as the payee and had been deposited at a drive-thru ATM.
Turns out, the suspect was later identified as Omar, according to authorities.
In court, Omar admitted to robbing the USPS carrier to obtain USPS property and to stealing U.S. Mail.
“The day of the robbery was my 30th day at that job, it was going to be my first full week being out on the street by myself. Instead I got a gun shoved into my abdomen,” the victim said at Omar’s sentencing. "It may just be a robbery to some people, but it was my life that was put in direct danger, and it is I who has to put the pieces back.”
Omar was sentenced Tuesday, Oct. 25, by Senior U.S. District Judge Terry R. Means to 71 months in federal prison.
“A top priority for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service has always been a focus on the safety of USPS employees,” Thomas Noyes, inspector in charge of the Fort Worth Division said.
“This sentencing exemplifies that commitment. Through a rapid response by Postal Inspectors, collaboration with local law enforcement, and the use of investigative tools and techniques, a dangerous individual was successfully apprehended. We thank the Fort Worth Police Department and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Texas for their support on this case," said Noyes.
