Posted on 06/22/2006 11:58:05 AM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
(AP) CHICAGO The downtown federal courthouse was locked down Thursday and rooms were sealed after a man inside the building fled from U.S. marshals.
Larnell Rogers, who was accused of lying to a federal agent, fled after learning a warrant had been issued for his arrest, U.S. Marshal Kim Widup said.
"Once he was in the building, somebody said 'Hey they want to see you, you're wanted now' and then he decided to run away within the building," Widup said.
It wasn't immediately clear if Rogers was armed and Widup said he was nonviolent. Authorities instructed all court officials to lock all doors in the Everett M. Dirksen Federal Building.
Some people were being allowed to leave the building around 1 p.m. and though the elevators were still shut down, the stairwells could be accessed. Widup said authorities would decide whether to reopen the building after conducting another search.
Rogers, who was wearing blue jeans and a green shirt, was scheduled to appear in court for a "routine" hearing on charges that he lied to a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent, Widup said. Rogers apparently showed up late for the proceeding, prompting U.S. District Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan to issue a bench warrant for his arrest, Widup said.
Widup said Rogers showed up after the hearing was over and learned that the warrant had been issued. At that point he fled.
"Out of an abundance of caution we put an overhead message to employees of the building to shut their doors while we're conducting the search," Widup said. Officials also spoke to Rogers through the building's intercom system, encouraging him to turn himself in.
While Widup acknowledged it was possible Rogers could have made it out of the building, he thought Rogers was still inside. He was last seen walking into a stairwell.
A person who answered the phone at Der-Yeghiayan's chambers said the judge will not comment on pending investigations involving building security.
The 28-story glass and steel structure Dirksen building is at the south end of Chicago's downtown Loop. U.S. marshals guard the building's lobby, which has metal detectors.
In 1992, a former police officer on trial for bank robbery slipped free of handcuffs in the courthouse's garage, grabbed a gun from a guard and killed two other guards before fatally shooting himself.
Jeffrey Erickson, who was known as the "bearded bandit," was being taken from the courthouse after his trial when he got out of his handcuffs as he was being led through the basement from the courthouse to the Metropolitan Correctional Center. Erickson wrestled a revolver away from a deputy U.S. marshal, then shot and killed another deputy marshal.
A building security guard then shot Erickson in the back as he fled. Erickson shot and killed the guard, then raced halfway up a ramp before he put the gun to his chin and killed himself.
A prisoner also escaped from the Dirksen building on June 8, 2001 after he slipped out of his handcuffs and exited a prisoner processing area after he was left unattended. Authorities caught Reginald Potts about two weeks later on Chicago's South Side.
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Another dangerous idiot.
One would think by now, that with all the publicity that Martha Stewart received, NO ONE, would ever admit anything that was not truthful to the Feebs
You just know it had something to do with firearms, the only "crimes" (with the exception of busting some moonshine) that these gestapo ever pursue.
Sounds like the Chicago PD needs to put the cuffs on a little tighter...too many of these people are escaping after "slipping out of their handcuffs".
Reread the story. He was never in handcuffs.
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