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Crime Cases
Orangevale,
California:
On
July 19, 2002, a United States Postal Service mail
carrier was delivering mail in a residential neighborhood
in Orangevale, California. The uniformed mail carrier,
who was a Sikh, was of Indian descent and wore a turban
and a full beard. While making his rounds, the mail
carrier felt a sharp pain after something hit him in
the back of his neck. A subsequent x-ray indicated
that the mail carrier had a pellet from a pellet gun
embedded in his neck.
It
was later determined that the pellet which hit the
mail carrier originated from a home within line of
sight of where the victim had been standing. Matthew
John Burdick, a resident in the home, admitted to investigators
that the pellet gun was his and that he had been using
the gun to practice target shooting at a Confederate
flag he had hanging in his garage. On October 30, 2002,
Burdick was indicted by a Federal Grand Jury. On May
28, 2003, Burdick pled guilty in Federal Court to the
pellet gun assault of the mail carrier. On September
17, 2003, Burdick was sentenced to 70 months in prison
for one count of 18 U.S.C. 111 (a) (1) (b) (Assaulting,
resisting or impeding certain officers or employees/Enhanced
penalty).
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