A federal judge rejected an Oregon man’s insanity defense and found him guilty of trying to kill a postal carrier on Christmas Eve in 2022, prosecutors said.
The U.S. Postal Service employee came across Kevin Eugene Irvine while delivering mail on foot, as snow covered the ground, during a cold day in Milwaukie, about a 5-mile drive southeast from Portland, according to prosecutors.
The postal worker saw Irvine, who was driving in a white van, and waved at him after they made eye contact, prosecutors said. The postal worker believed Irvine waved first, but he had thrown “his arms in the air,” according to prosecutors.
The letter carrier mistook the motion as a friendly gesture. Shortly afterward, Irvine drove by the postal worker on a nearby street and made eye contact with him again before he pulled over several houses down the road, prosecutors said.
Irvine then stepped out of his van and aimed a rifle at the postal worker, who tried to take cover, according to prosecutors. Irvine knelt down and fired three times, shooting the man in his left leg, according to court documents. Then Irvine collected his shell casings, got back in his van and disappeared, prosecutors said.
