Dirksen Federal Building locked down...

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http://www.nbc5.com/news/9411242/detail.ht...ss=chi&psp=news

 

 

CHICAGO -- The Dirksen Federal Building in Chicago was locked down for hours on Thursday while U.S. marshals searched for a man trying to flee custody. The lockdown was lifted around 2 p.m., but the man remains at large.

 

 

Officials reopened the building because they said they finished searching the courthouse, and believe the man may have gotten out of the building.

 

 

Marshals said the man, Larnell Rogers, was not a violent offender and had not been in custody before the incident. Rogers, 38, escaped after learning a warrant had been issued for his arrest, U.S. Marshal Kim Widup said.

 

Rogers, who was wearing blue jeans and a green shirt, was scheduled to appear in court for a status hearing on charges that he lied to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

 

He arrived at court after his scheduled hearing, learned of the warrant and fled, officials 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.

 

People inside the building reported that a loudspeaker announcement called for Rogers to go to a hallway and lay down on the floor, so that authorities could take him into custody.

 

Authorities said a floor-by-floor search was conducted.

 

"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.

 

According to court documents, a Larnell Rogers was indicted along with two others in March for allegedly lying to federal agents about the 2004 shooting death of an ATF informant.

 

The indictment alleges that co-defendant Jesse Williams lied to federal agents to get work as an ATF informant. Williams promised Rogers he would pay him to falsely impersonate someone who was involved in the shooting. Rogers has pleaded not guilty.

 

Telephone messages left with attorneys for Rogers and Williams were not immediately returned.

 

Frank Jops, the owner of Tri-Taylor Realty Management on the city's West Side, said Rogers would occasionally do odd jobs for him. Rogers listed the management company on a financial affidavit filed in the case.

 

"I thought he was homeless," Jops said. "He would come around and ask every once in while if he could pick up garbage for a couple bucks."

 

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.