A man who escaped from Mississippi authorities more than two months ago was arrested Wednesday after a 15-hour standoff during which he hid in the ceiling of a Near West Side seafood restaurant.
Joshua Zimmerman, 30, barricaded himself inside Seafood Junction, 2325 W. Madison St., about half a mile from the United Center, after police, a SWAT team, U.S. Marshals and the FBI converged on the strip mall about 4 p.m. Tuesday.
Zimmerman, who worked at the restaurant, surrendered about 7:20 a.m. Wednesday.
John Chan, who works at King Wok Chinese restaurant next door, said he’d seen Zimmerman a few times in the past month or so. On Tuesday, the restaurant got a call notifying them of an evacuation order from law enforcement, but Chan wasn’t so quick to act.
“I thought it was a hoax, someone’s just prank calling,” he said.
Soon enough, law enforcement arrived and cleared out all the customers and employees, Chan said. Confusion abounded as employees at the Madison Street strip mall filed out of the building and across the parking lot.
Chan said he spoke with a manager at Seafood Junction.
“She was pretty shocked that she was working next to” Zimmerman, Chan said.
Seafood Junction was closed Wednesday, and calls to the restaurant went unanswered.
“What’s crazy is he just ended up here working,” Chan said.
Officers negotiated with Zimmerman as he hid in the ceiling of Seafood Junction, according to Martin Howard, who works at the Metro by T-Mobile store next door. Howard watched the store’s security footage from home and listened to negotiations, he said.
“‘It’s probably dusty. You’re probably hot,'” Howard heard the negotiator say. “‘We’re not gonna hurt you.'”
It’s not clear how or why Zimmerman ended up in Chicago.
“We’ve been investigating this for 68 days,” said Justin Smith, chief deputy with the DeSoto County sheriff’s office in Mississippi. “That’s why we’re excited to actually get a chance to sit down with Zimmerman and get some more facts.”
Zimmerman escaped from the DeSoto County courthouse after being charged with attempted murder and other felonies. He faces separate murder charges in connection with the fatal shooting of 23-year-old Keyanna Mercer last September inside a Houston motel room, according to Houston police.
Zimmerman is scheduled to be in court Thursday after being charged in Chicago with two counts of fleeing from law enforcement to avoid arrest or prosecution, Chicago police said.
Security footage obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times shows members of law enforcement holding guns with helmets, full camouflage and gas masks leading a shirtless Zimmerman out of the building.
A hole in King Wok’s ceiling shows where teams released a “chemical pollutant” to coax Zimmerman from his post.
“I was like, ‘What the hell did this guy do?'” Howard said. “Why is the FBI here? I was like, ‘Why are they bringing so many people just for one guy?'”
Hours after the long standoff, business carried on largely as usual.
Except for one very important thing.
“I really came to eat,” said Tony Jackson, a loyal Seafood Junction customer who stood outside the restaurant Wednesday afternoon. “I can’t get my salmon and my shrimp.”
Jackson said he saw reports of the SWAT incident on Facebook but thought it was “clickbait.”
“Is this s—t real?” he asked as he walked up to the closed restaurant.