CHICAGO — An escaped Mississippi inmate, on the run since mid-June, was taken into custody in Chicago on Wednesday morning after an hourslong standoff with U.S. Marshals.
The DeSoto County (Miss.) Sheriff’s Office announced Tuesday night that escaped inmate Joshua Zimmerman was barricaded inside a Near West Side restaurant in the 2300 block of West Madison Street, close to where the Democratic National Convention is being held this week, and was surrounded by U.S. Marshals.
After more than 15 hours, Zimmerman was taken into custody around 7:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Seafood Junction at 2325 W. Madison St., about a half-mile west of the United Center. According to a witness who works at a nearby store, Zimmerman had been working at the Seafood Junction for a couple weeks.
Facing an attempted murder charge, Zimmerman escaped from a DeSoto County courthouse on June 14 and had not been seen since.
Prior to being taken into custody Wednesday morning, Zimmerman had climbed into the ceiling of the Seafood Junction, next to a cell phone store.
“I heard some loud banging, just in the wall. I thought they were slamming the fridge shut or something like that,” Martin Howard, a witness who works at the cell phone store, said. “And the next thing you know, I hear (someone) saying, ‘There’s like 20 U.S. Marshals in the front.’
“… They’re like, ‘You guys need to leave. There’s a murder suspect. He’s in the ceiling.'”
After more than 15 hours of negotiating to get him out of the ceiling, with help from a CPD SWAT team, surveillance video captures the moment law enforcement led Zimmerman — shirtless and handcuffed — out of the store and onto the back of a police wagon in the parking lot.
Zimmerman had escaped from a Mississippi courthouse, where he was due for a hearing in a case in which he was facing an attempted murder charge. He’s accused of attacking an elderly Southaven, Miss., man who hired him to work at his house last September.
Surveillance cameras captured Zimmerman leaving the Mississippi courthouse in plain clothes, with no handcuffs and no security escort. From the courtroom, down the stairs, past the metal detectors and guards at the front entrance, Zimmerman apparently went unnoticed.
From there, it’s believed he hitched a ride to Memphis, Tenn. It’s unknown how or when he got to Chicago.
District Attorney Matthew Barton told WGN’s sister station WREG in Memphis what happened before Zimmerman even got to the Mississippi courtroom.
“So I’ve actually seen a video from inside the courthouse,” Barton said. “They came inside the courthouse, they’re going upstairs to the courtroom. He’s wearing shackles and a jumpsuit like everybody else. He broke from the line (and) went through a door. Sometime later, he left the courthouse with no shackles and street clothes.”
The U.S. Marshals’ office and DeSoto County District Attorney’s Office each offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to Zimmerman’s arrest.
Mississippi law enforcement says officials are working to get Zimmerman back to the state as soon as possible. They say he has a long criminal history, which will now likely include several more crimes, including escaping custody.