EGN NEWS DESK
A person needed on homicide and armed theft fees was taken into custody Wednesday after a 15-hour standoff with police at a Chicago restaurant simply blocks from the Democratic National Convention, authorities mentioned.
Joshua Zimmerman had been sought by the U.S. Marshals Service since his escape from a Mississippi courthouse in June. He was positioned Tuesday on the restaurant, based on Justin Smith, chief deputy with the DeSoto County Sheriff’s Office in Mississippi.
After marshals discovered that Zimmerman was in Chicago, an company job power concluded that he was at a seafood restaurant, the place investigators believed he was working.
“During the arrest try, Zimmerman retreated into the ceiling and barricaded himself,” the company mentioned in an announcement. A Chicago police SWAT staff was then known as to the scene.
The restaurant is a couple of half-mile from the United Center, the place the political conference is being held. The Marshals Service mentioned there was “no connection or menace to the occasion or these attending.”
Without utilizing Zimmerman’s identify, the Chicago Police Department mentioned an individual was taken into custody about 7:20 a.m. and that the SWAT motion that started about 4 p.m. Tuesday had ended.
The Marshals Service mentioned Zimmerman escaped from the circuit court docket constructing in Hernando, Mississippi, the place he was being held on tried homicide and armed theft fees. He was additionally awaiting extradition to Houston, Texas, the place he’s charged with homicide, the Marshals Service mentioned.
Zimmerman was carrying road garments, not a jail jumpsuit, when he escaped. A screenshot from a courthouse safety video confirmed him carrying khaki pants and a white shirt and no handcuffs.
Smith advised reporters that the sheriff’s division and different companies have been investigating why Zimmerman was not carrying handcuffs and the way he escaped. He mentioned authorities wish to carry him again to Mississippi.
“That’s why we’re excited to truly get an opportunity to sit down down with Zimmerman and get some extra details,” Smith mentioned.
According to court docket data in Harris County, Texas, Zimmerman is accused of fatally taking pictures a lady, Keyanna Mercer, at a Houston motel on Sept. 2, 2023.
The two had been requested to go away the motel after a number of complaints of combating, and when employees members checked the room to see if that they had left, they discovered Mercer’s physique with a gunshot wound to the pinnacle, police mentioned.
Court data additionally present Zimmerman was arrested in Connecticut in 2022 on a felony sexual assault cost. He pleaded not responsible and was freed on a $200,000 bond, however a warrant was later issued for his re-arrest. Connecticut State Police didn’t instantly present particulars on the case.
