An escaped Mississippi inmate is barricaded inside a restaurant in Chicago and engaged in a standoff with the U.S. Marshals Office, the DeSoto County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday.
Joshua Zimmerman, who walked out of a county courthouse in DeSoto, Mississippi, on June 14, is inside the restaurant alone, said Chief Deputy Justin Smith during a press conference. Zimmerman was charged with murder in the fatal 2023 shooting of a woman in Houston, Texas.
Smith said he didn't know which restaurant Zimmerman was located in, and NBC Chicago's calls to the U.S. Marshals Office were not returned as of 9 p.m. Tuesday.
Smith said the DeSoto County Sheriff’s Office received information from the U.S. Marshals Office Tuesday afternoon that they located Zimmerman in the restaurant.
"He's currently barricaded inside that restaurant and surrounded by the Chicago SWAT team," Smith said. "It's an ongoing event. We don't have any further information at this time."
Smith said the office looks forward to returning Zimmerman, who the U.S. Marshals Office has called "armed and very dangerous," back at its detention facility to "gather the remaining facts surrounding his escape."
Smith said he wasn't aware how Zimmerman got to Chicago.
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