A Cook County Jail detainee who had been locked up for a week was allegedly found in possession of a handgun while he was being released from custody earlier this week, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.
The silver and black semiautomatic handgun was discovered early Wednesday morning while the detainee was meeting with a probation officer and waiting to be released on a GPS ankle monitor, according to a court records.
"Can I surrender something?" 18-year-old Kemari Johnson allegedly asked the probation officer before reaching into his pocket and placing a magazine with seven live rounds on a table.
Johnson then reached into his waistband and pulled out a .40-caliber Taurus PT140 handgun, court records show. The probation officer took the gun and ammunition and walked Johnson into a supervisor's office where he was "searched and secured” by the Cook County sheriff’s office, which is investigating.
Johnson now faces a felony charge of possessing a firearm in a penal institution and is expected to appear in court for a detention hearing on Friday afternoon.
The gun was discovered about 3 a.m. Wednesday on the jail’s campus in Little Village after Johnson was bussed back from a court hearing Tuesday afternoon in the Far South Side Pullman neighborhood.
Johnson said he found the gun while he was “reaching for his phone” as he was being held in custody, according to a sheriff’s office report. Detainees are not allowed to have personal phones, and officials didn't report that a phone was recovered.
Surveillance footage captured Johnson sitting in a corner and reaching “down toward [the] floor looking for something … and under [a] bench,” according to the incident report.
Another detainee allegedly told Johnson “you are going to jail and CPD messed up.”
Authorities are investigating how long Johnson had the weapon and how the gun slipped into the jail in the first place. Spokespersons for the sheriff's office and Chief Judge Timothy Evans didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
Johnson had been booked into the jail after he was arrested and charged with felony aggravated battery to a police officer, court records show.
In that case, officers responded to the 8000 block of South Ingleside Avenue on Nov. 11 after Johnson’s mother sought to have him removed from her uncle’s home, according to a Chicago police report.
Johnson allegedly tried to rush past responding officers to attack his mother’s uncle and began pushing the cops. Johnson picked up one officer who was “slammed to the floor” before he was taken into custody, the report states.
Johnson appeared in court the following day, and Judge William Fahy placed him on electronic monitoring. It wasn't immediately clear why Johnson wasn’t released from custody after the hearing
Johnson was then taken to Tuesday's hearing before Judge Lindsay Huge, who removed electronic monitoring as a condition of Johnson's release in favor of pretrial monitoring and a curfew.
