With two arrest warrants on his head and a passenger carrying a loaded gun, Tajze Mullins backed his car into a Chicago police officer on Lake Shore Drive Friday evening, breaking the cop’s leg, then sped away from the scene, officials said Sunday.
After cops found him hiding under a South Side porch, Mullins again tried to escape police custody by climbing into the ceiling of an Area Three detective division interview room, prosecutor Jack Ruggiero said at Mullins’ bond court hearing Sunday afternoon.
Earlier this month, police determined that Mullins’ BMW 750i struck a Cook County sheriff’s police officer, and they flagged the car’s license plate in a law enforcement database.
On Friday evening, a Chicago Police Department license plate reader spotted the BMW heading south on Lake Shore Drive in Streeterville, and officers followed the car until it stopped for a red light at Roosevelt Road, said Ruggiero.
As officers walked up on both sides of Mullins’ car, he allegedly put the BMW into reverse, striking an officer’s leg. Another officer fired a shot at Mullins’ car but missed, hitting the rear passenger door of a nearby Lyft instead, Ruggiero said. No one was injured by the shot.
Mullins weaved in and out of cars, jumped onto the Dan Ryan Expressway, and bailed out near 71st Street, according to Ruggiero. Officers found him hiding under a porch in the 7100 block of South Lafayette. His front seat passenger, Shaquille Fisher, also arrested after a foot chase, had a loaded handgun inside a bookbag, Ruggiero said.
Later, Mullins allegedly removed a vent cover and climbed into the ceiling of an interview room at Area Three police headquarters, 2452 West Belmont. Ruggiero said Mullins caused “extensive damage” to the detective division’s ceiling, ductwork, and electrical system before cops brought him down.
Both men have previous convictions for retail thefts, Ruggiero said.
Fischer, charged with felony unlawful use of a weapon, was held in lieu of a $7,500 bail payment by Judge Charles Beach. The judge said he must go on electronic monitoring if released and pay an additional $1,350 bail for two outstanding warrants in Cook County.
Prosecutors charged Mullins with attempted first-degree murder, aggravated assault of a peace officer, and escape by a felon. He also has two arrest warrants in Texas, Beach said, one for engaging in organized crime and the other for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Assistant Public Defender Courtney Smallwood argued that it was unclear if Mullins knew the people walking up to his car on Lake Shore Drive were police officers, and he “may have panicked.” And, she said, Ruggiero offered no evidence that Mullins intended to hit the police officer with his car.
After weighing the lawyers’ presentations, Beach granted the state’s request to hold Mullins without bail. Beach also held Mullins without bail on the Texas warrants.