Amazon worker shot and killed by food delivery driver outside online retailer’s distribution center

A food delivery driver fatally shot an Amazon worker in the parking lot of the online retailer’s distribution center outside of Chicago, according to police.

Officials in Matteson, Illinois, announced Monday that police officers found an Amazon employee who was shot multiple times in the torso near the front entrance of an Amazon distribution center in the village Sunday night.

The worker was identified as a 27-year-old man from nearby Glenwood, according to a Facebook post from the village of Matteson. Local outlets named the victim as Dylan Perkins, citing the local medical examiner’s office.

Investigators found that Perkins and the food delivery driver got into an argument that turned physical, Matteson officials said.

During the fight, the suspect shot Perkins “several times,” according to officials.

“I don’t think that anyone should have a few words with each other and then you end up dead,” the Amazon worker’s mother, Pamela Perkins, told CBS News Chicago.

The responding officers provided medical assistance to Perkins until paramedics arrived. The employee was then taken to a local hospital, where he died from his injuries.

“This is an isolated incident and there is no threat to the public,” Matteson officials wrote in the Facebook post.

As of Monday, authorities were still working to identify and charge the suspect.

The Independent has requested comment from Matteson police, the medical examiner’s office and Amazon.

“I think people need to learn how to walk away,” Pamela Perkins said. “It doesn’t make sense just to go back and forth with somebody over little, trivial things.”

“We’re saddened by this senseless act of violence and are focused on supporting our employees and the victim’s family during this difficult time,” an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement shared by ABC7 Chicago.

“We’re working with the Matteson Police Department in their active investigation,” the person said.

Amazon noted that the employee was a third-party vendor. All shifts were canceled, and everyone who was working was sent home with full pay after the shooting, the company told CBS News Chicago.

This is not the first time a shooting has taken place at the Amazon distribution center in Matteson.

In 2024, a 33-year-old woman’s head was grazed by a bullet in a shooting that occurred likely in retaliation for an earlier fight that had happened in the parking lot between employees, according to local reports.

Another shooting took place at the distribution center during a parking lot argument in 2022, but no one was injured, reports said.

“I think we need to do a better job with securing parking lots of these big businesses,” Perkins’ sister, Kimberly Perkins, told CBS News Chicago. “I just wish that it doesn’t happen to anybody else.”

Officials ask anyone with information related to the shooting to call the Matteson police’s non-emergency line at 708-503-3130 or submit an anonymous tip through the village’s website.