HERNANDO, madam. — A man was arrested in August after a 15-hour police standoff at a restaurant a few blocks from the Democratic National Convention in Chicago is being taken back to Mississippi, where he had escaped from a county jail.
Joshua Zimmerman will be extradited, Mississippi Department of Public Safety spokesperson Bailey Martin confirmed to the Associated Press on Wednesday. She would not say when he would be moved, and it was not immediately clear whether Zimmerman is represented by an attorney.
“As this is an open and ongoing investigation, no further comment will be made at this time,” Martin said.
Zimmerman was arrested on August 21 at a seafood restaurant a few blocks from the United Center in Chicago, where the Democratic National Convention was taking place. The Marshals Service said there was “no connection or threat to the event or those attending.” Investigators said they believed Zimmerman worked at the restaurant.
Zimmerman was wearing street clothes and was not handcuffed when he fled the scene DeSoto County Courthouse in Hernando, Mississippi, on June 14.
At the time of the escape, Zimmerman was scheduled to appear in court on charges of attempted murder and armed robbery in Mississippi. He was also awaiting extradition to Texas, where he faces murder charges, the U.S. Marshals Service said.
According to court records in Harris County, Texas, Zimmerman is accused of fatally shooting a woman, Keyanna Mercer, at a Houston motel on September 2, 2023. The two were asked to leave the motel after multiple complaints of fighting and then staff members checked the room to see if they had left. They found Mercer’s body with a gunshot wound to the head, police said.
Court records also show that Zimmerman was arrested in Connecticut in 2022 on charges of sexual assault. He pleaded not guilty and was released on a $200,000 bond, but a warrant was later issued for his rearrest.
Days after Zimmerman’s arrest in Chicago, the DeSoto County Sheriff’s Department in northern Mississippi said it had instituted new security procedures. A former deputy prison guard was fired and charged with transferring items useful in the escape of a prisoner.