Shorewood House Shooting Defendant Tries Taking Gun From Sheriff's Deputy At Courthouse: Officials

JOLIET, IL — A new criminal charge has been filed against Dana Thompson, the Chicago woman accused of shooting up two different Shorewood subdivision homes after prosecutors say she drove there with plans of killing her father.

On Friday morning, after Will County Judge Derek Ewanic ordered Thompson detained under the SAFE-T-Act, Thompson apparently tried to grab a service weapon belonging to one of the Will County Sheriff's deputies assigned to courthouse security, officials told Joliet Patch.

She's now charged with disarming an officer.

Patch was told that Thompson was in jail garb, handcuffs and shackles, at the time, and was unsuccessful. Several other deputies converged upon her and escorted her out of Courtroom 202 after the incident happened. One person told Patch that as many as 40 people may have been in the courtroom when the incident happened, including one of Shorewood's deputy police chiefs, Brian Poulsen, who was also there to attend Thursday's proceedings since he submitted the criminal complaint against her. On Thursday, Thompson refused to leave her jail cell to attend her first court hearing at the courthouse, prompting the judge to move it to Friday morning.

"We are aware of the incident and anticipate filing new charges," Assistant Will County State's Attorney Laura Byrne told Patch.

According to Thursday's petition to deny pretrial release for Thompson, one witness saw a vehicle with a similar description leaving the area of the Shorewood shootings at a high rate of speed at the time of the shootings and later contacted Shorewood police.

Prosecutors said video obtained in Peru, Illinois, showed the driver of the vehicle at a gas station before Tuesday's early morning shootings in Shorewood, roughly an hour away.

"This was a female wearing baggy blue pants and a dark colored sports bra who appeared to be this defendant," Will County prosecutor Tricia McKenna outlined in her successful petition to keep Thompson detained under the SAFE-T-Act. "Video in Peru, Illinois, showed the same individual wearing the same clothing; tattoos and piercings arc visible, which further confirm the identity of this person as the defendant. In the video in Peru, the defendant appeared to be speaking with a store clerk and received a small piece of paper from that clerk during this conversation."

McKenna also said that "a social media account under the defendant's name was located and show the defendant with visible tattoos which match the individual in the Peru video. Photos on this account show the defendant with what appears to be the vehicle used in this case and with firearms ... The firearm in the social media photos appears to have been painted blue."

On Tuesday, police in Lansing, Illinois captured Thompson after she was driving a silver Dodge Journey. She was taken to the Shorewood Police Department and interviewed for the shootings on Northgate Drive and Bethany Drive, a half-mile away.

"She stated she traveled to Shorewood, Illinois, so she could kill her dad because he didn't provide proper health care for her grandmother. She advised, without being given these specifics of the case, that she only had four bullets in her gun and she used them all. She stated she used a Glock, but she should have used a shotgun. She knew her father's bedroom was on the second floor of his house but didn't know his exact address," court files reflect.

Thompson's father was not at either of the homes that was hit by gunfire. One of the homes belonged to Democratic State Sen. Meg Loughran Cappel.

According to the Shorewood police search of Thompson's vehicle, a "piece of paper was located which appeared similar to the one the defendant received in the gas station video in Peru, Illinois, before the shootings. That piece of paper contained directions to Shorewood from that location and has been recovered and placed into evidence," McKenna revealed in court records.