Cook County Jail detainees charged with attempted murder for alleged attack on corrections officers

Two Cook County Jail detainees allegedly involved in an attack that left a corrections officer hospitalized and two others injured last week are facing attempted murder charges.

A grand jury Tuesday handed up the indictments against Dante Jeffries and Sharelle Sims for their alleged involvement in the April 14 attack inside the jail’s maximum security wing .

In addition to attempted murder, Jeffries and Sims are also facing aggravated kidnapping, aggravated battery and possession of contraband charges, according to the state’s attorney’s office. Jeffries and Sims will be arraigned on May 5.

A jail officer had let Jeffries out of his cell around 3:40 a.m. that morning to get a cup of water. When Jeffries returned from getting the drink, he allegedly attacked the officer from behind and dragged him into his cell. The officer fought his way back out of the cell, only to have Jeffries knock him down and choke him unconscious, the sheriff’s office said.

Cook County sheriff’s office

Jeffries took the unconscious officer’s keys and handed them to his cellmate, Sims, who began unlocking the cells of other detainees, the sheriff’s office said. A second officer ran through the tier and gave aid to the fallen officer, and a third officer confronted Jeffries, who allegedly knocked the third officer down with a punch to the face, then punched the officer who was stooped over the first officer. Jeffries may have used a bar of soap, in a sock wrapped around his wrist, during the attack, the sheriff’s office said.

Video shows another officer, a sergeant armed with a Taser, ordering Jeffries, Sims and a third detainee who had been let out by Sims, back into their cells as more than a dozen corrections officers stormed into the tier.

Cook County sheriff’s office

Jeffries, 30, had been in custody since July 2017 for allegedly shooting a Chicago police officer after an armed robbery on the South Side, the sheriff’s office said. He has previous convictions for aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, domestic violence, and drug possession.

Sims, 23, has been in custody since August 2019, facing a gun charge and a charge of being an armed habitual criminal. He has prior convictions for armed robbery and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon.