Escaped Mississippi inmate —wanted for murder — in standoff with police at Chicago restaurant blocks away from DNC
A fugitive wanted on murder and robbery charges was taken into custody Wednesday morning following an hours-long standoff in a Chicago restaurant just blocks from the Democratic National Convention.
Joshua Zimmerman was seen being escorted out of the Seafood Junction restaurant in handcuffs around 7:30 a.m. local time, footage from ABC7 Chicago showed.
SWAT teams and police had been on the scene since around 4 a.m., several hours after Zimmerman first hid inside the eatery less than a mile from the DNC.
Zimmerman was working at the restaurant and barricaded himself inside the ceiling during an initial arrest attempt, the New York Times reported, citing the US Marshals Service.
He escaped from a Hernando, Mississippi, courthouse on June 14, Justin Smith, chief deputy of the DeSoto County Sheriff’s Office, said Tuesday night.
Surveillance footage of the incident showed Zimmerman change from a jumpsuit into civilian clothing then exited through a door that wasn’t being guarded by officers, CBS News reported.
At the time of his escape, Zimmerman was being held on attempted murder and armed robbery charges related to an attack on an elderly man who hired him to do work on his house, the outlet added.
He was also awaiting extradition to Houston, Texas, where he is charged with murder in connection with the fatal shooting of a woman last fall.
Smith confirmed during the Tuesday press conference that Zimmerman did not appear to be armed, and it was not believed to have taken any hostages inside the restaurant.
“We know that he’s by himself in there. There’s no innocent civilians. It’s only Zimmerman inside the building,” he clarified.
Authorities want to bring Zimmerman back to Mississippi to learn more about his escape, Smith said.
“We just want to talk to him,” Smith explained.
“We want to find out what happened. We’re parsing together information and he’s the center of the puzzle, so having him in our hands will give us some really good leads on how all this transpired and if he did have assistance.”
The US Marshals Service did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for a comment on the arrest.
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He changed from a jumpsuit into civilian clothing then exited through a door that wasn’t being guarded by officers, CBS News reported.
At the time of his escape, Zimmerman was being held on attempted murder and armed robbery charges related to an attack on an elderly man who hired him to do work on his house, the outlet added.
He was also awaiting extradition to Houston, Texas, where he is charged with murder in connection with the fatal shooting of a woman last fall.
It was not immediately clear how authorities tracked Zimmerman down in Chicago, and there was no suggestion that he was connected to the DNC.
Authorities want to bring Zimmerman back to Mississippi to learn more about his escape, Smith said.
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