COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — A man accused of shooting an off-duty Cook County corrections officer in a botched carjacking was just paroled in September from an Illinois prison, prosecutors said.
James Tillman, 21, was charged with attempted first-degree murder after prosecutors said he walked up to the corrections officer's car in the Gresham neighborhood Sunday, tapped on the window with a gun and shot the officer in the hand moments later.
Tillman faces charges of attempted first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and attempted vehicular hijacking, according to a police report.
A Cook County judge ordered him held without bail Monday during a brief court hearing.
The corrections officer was in his car in the 7900 block of South Paulina Street shortly before 4 a.m. Sunday when Tillman appeared with the gun, prosecutors said. Tillman pulled the trigger, striking the corrections officer in the hand, and the corrections officer fired back.
Tillman, of the 1200 block of West Hastings Street, fled, prosecutors said. He was later found by police at Advocate Christ Medical Center, where he had been taken for the two gunshot wounds he sustained in the attempted carjacking, prosecutors said.
It was unclear Monday afternoon whether the officer had been treated and released from the hospital or remained in the care of doctors.
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