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The 19-year-old man charged with firing the stray bullet that struck and killed 11-year-old Takiya Holmes was beaten by a Cook County Jail inmate while awaiting his bond hearing at a county courthouse.
The beating was captured on video and released Thursday by the Cook County sheriff’s office.
The surveillance video captured an inmate approaching a dozing Antwan Jones while he was handcuffed to a chair in street clothes before his bond hearing Wednesday at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse on murder charges in Holmes’ shooting death.
The inmate, identified by the sheriff’s office as 24-year-old Renard Williams, walked up to Jones and struck him with a right-handed punch to his head. Williams was able to land several other punches before he was grabbed by a sheriff’s employee and pulled away.
Williams was unrestrained at the time because he was being brought back into the room after appearing in court for a status hearing on murder charges in a fatal shooting in June last year, according to Cara Smith, a spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office.
Smith said it was common for inmates to be without restraints as they are taken out of court, and that the attack happened before he could be restrained again.
Williams has been in custody at the jail since August 2016, when he was charged with aggravated battery to a police officer, domestic battery and other charges, according to Chicago Police. While in custody, he was charged with first-degree murder in January in the fatal shooting of 35-year-old Antoine Randle on June 14, 2016 in the Austin neighborhood.
Jones declined to press charges against Williams in the attack, which is also common, Smith said. Williams was issued a disciplinary ticket for the attack, but has been “a challenging detainee” since he was housed at the jail in August. Williams has had a number of disciplinary violations at the jail, including indecent exposure, fighting and noncompliance with officers’ orders.
Takiya Holmes was in the back seat of her family’s mini van when shots rang out Saturday night in the 6500 block of South King Drive. Her mother and aunt, who were in the front seats, turned to check on Takiya and her 3-year-old brother and found the girl was shot in her right temple. She was pronounced dead at Comer Children’s Hospital on Tuesday.
Prosecutors said Jones, a member of the Black Disciples, fired multiple times with a semi-automatic handgun after he and several other gang members went to confront people selling marijuana in their territory at the Parkway Gardens apartment complex.
Jones turned himself in after he was identified by witnesses as the shooter, police said.
Jones was ordered held without bail by Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil on Wednesday. He is held at the Cook County Jail in protective custody, which Smith said was standard for high-profile cases.
Williams remains in the maximum security Division 9 section of the jail, Smith said.