Derrick Swanson escaped through a window when officers tried to arrest him on a murder warrant Thursday.
But his freedom lasted only a few seconds.
Swanson — who was wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet in connection with a 2018 criminal case — fell six stories from his South Side apartment onto a concrete sidewalk, officials say.
Now he’s in a hospital with serious internal injuries and broken bones.
Swanson, 22, is charged in federal court with committing a murder in aid of racketeering and illegally possessing a 9mm handgun.
He’s accused of shooting 27-year-old Anthony Carter in the head on Oct. 2, 2018 at a Falcon Fuel gas station in the 800 block of East 79th in order to get promoted in a gang called the Evans Mob. Carter had two daughters.
The Chicago police and U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were in involved in Swanson’s arrest.
He had been free on bond in a separate Cook County criminal case, court records show.
Swanson was arrested on Oct. 11, 2018 — nine days after Carter was killed — on unrelated charges of assaulting police officers and illegal gun possession.
Chicago police officers were driving in a patrol vehicle that day when they saw Swanson walking on South Cottage Grove Avenue clutching his waistband like he was holding a gun, a police report said.
They stopped Swanson and found a small amount of marijuana on him. He ran, was caught, and then fought the officers in the patrol vehicle after he was handcuffed — biting and kicking them, the report said.
Later in the Cook County Jail, Swanson made a telephone call to someone about where to find a gun that he tossed during the foot chase, according to the police report. Authorities monitor calls in the jail.
Police recovered the weapon — a 9mm Beretta 92F semiautomatic handgun with an obliterated serial number. The same gun was used in Carter’s killing, according to the federal indictment against Swanson.
Swanson’s criminal record includes a 2015 felony conviction for illegal gun possession, court records show. He allegedly held a woman at gunpoint in a Rodeway Inn in Skokie. He was sentenced to two years in state prison.
