Felon charged with shooting Chicago police officers has decade-long history of drug and gun crimes
CHICAGO (WLS) -- Lovelle Jordan was on parole when Chicago police took him into custody. Before Thursday's gunfight with officers, the 25-year-old had spent about a third of his life in the criminal justice system, much of that time behind bars.
He is on parole now, and the suspicion is an automatic return to prison for violating parole by getting arrested may have been his motivation to try to shoot his way out of custody.
It was just April 10 of this year at the Pinckneyville state prison in Southern Illinois that Lovelle Jordan was freed on parole after serving the required 50-percent of a five-year sentence for gun possession by a felon.
"I think we need to do a better job of holding gun offenders accountable," Chicago Police Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan said at a press conference Friday morning.
Jordan's mugshots and criminal file offer both an age progression and chart his decade of gang lawlessness while living in west suburban Bellwood:
--2012: heroin and cocaine possession
--2015: drug possession
--2016: drug possession, aggravated assault and fleeing police
--2017: caught with a gun and convicted as an "armed habitual criminal"
"He was on electronic monitoring until June and then that was removed and now a month later he's armed with a gun going into a stolen car with officers 5 feet away from him which leads to him shooting officers," said Chief Deenihan. "They don't want these offenders released back into their neighborhoods with guns. This is a convicted felon on parole, just gets off EM and he's got a gun on him. Not only does he have a gun on him, he walks right in front of officers to get in a stolen vehicle because he thinks he's going to be able to be that quick to get away."
Before yesterday's firefight with police, state corrections department records listed Jordan's status as an "absconder," which would indicate he was not complying with the terms of his parole. This afternoon a Cook County judge has ordered him held without bond. He is in custody at Stroger Hospital with multiple gunshot wounds.
