Jerron D. Williams appeared early this week before U.S. Magistrate Judge John E. Martin, via a video teleconferencing link, on federal charges of assault and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

The magistrate ordered Williams held in the Porter County Jail until a hearing Friday on whether he can be released on bond or must remain in detention until trial.

Acting U.S. Attorney Gary Bell charged Williams this week with firing shots Friday night at a mail delivery truck and injuring a female postal worker who isn’t identified in court papers.

Brian Lambka, a U.S. postal inspector, alleges in court papers the carrier had stopped her delivery truck about 7 p.m. Friday outside Williams' home in the 4200 block of Tennessee Street in Gary’s Glen Park section.

He said she was sorting mail for deliveries on the street when Williams backed out of his driveway and struck the mail vehicle.

Lambka said Williams became irate and began yelling at the mail carrier, who attempted to defuse the situation until she saw Williams go into his house for what she feared was a firearm.

In her attempt to drive around other vehicles stopped in the street, she struck Williams' car, court records said. Then, an enraged Williams came out of his house armed with a 9 mm handgun and fired four shots at the mail truck.

The gunfire shattered the right side window, causing facial and neck injuries to the carrier, Lambka wrote. Lambka alleges a witness saw Williams firing at the mail truck as it drove by and heard the mail carrier screaming.

Williams then fled the scene. Police later traced his car to a motel in the 1800 block of Mississippi Street in Hobart and arrested him outside his motel room.

Lambka alleges Williams was prohibited from possessing a firearm because he was previously convicted of three felonies: a firearms violation and resisting arrest in 2018, and burglary in 2014.

Recent arrests booked into Lake County Jail