Chicago Sun-Times
Related: Better tactics for transporting prisoners
CHICAGO — What started as a hostage situation aboard a bus transporting inmates to the federal courthouse Downtown on Thursday morning ended with a suspect hospitalized after being Tasered by a U.S. Marshal.
 (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green) |
The incident started about 8:30 a.m. Thursday when a busload of inmates from Kankakee County arrived at the Jackson Street entrance to the Dirksen Federal Building for their court hearings, according to Deputy Chief John O’Malley Jr. of the U.S. Marshals Service. When the bus stopped, one of the inmates on board was holding the other inmates and a deputy marshal at bay with a homemade shank, he said.
The deputy marshal on the bus finally convinced the inmate to let everyone else go, but when he refused to surrender the weapon, which O’Malley said was made of plastic and “probably appeared more dangerous than it was,” the marshal used his stun gun.
The deputy struck the inmate with a Taser round and he dropped the shank, O’Malley said. The inmate was transported to Northwestern Memorial Hospital as a precaution. None of the other 15 male inmates on the bus, nor the deputy marshal were injured.
The entire incident lasted about 25 minutes from the time the bus, which O’Malley said was contracted by the federal government, pulled into the inmate transport area in the Dirksen building’s basement and the time the inmate was taken away by ambulance. A Fire Media Affairs spokesman said one person was taken to Northwestern, but did not have a condition, saying only it was a “police matter.”
O’Malley would not disclose the name of the inmate, but said the man was facing bank robbery charges and was to appear for a pre-trial hearing.
The incident was under investigation and the U.S. Attorney’s office would decide whether further charges were warranted, O’Malley said. A U.S. Attorney’s office spokesman said he could not comment until the investigation is complete.