1979 Murder Suspect Arrested At Chicago Airport
A 1979 murder suspect was arrested at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. The 1979 murder suspect was on his way to his grandchild’s graduation ceremony.
The 1979 murder suspect, Ata Yousef El Ammouri, 65, had just landed when he was nabbed by police.
The 1979 murder suspect allegedly shot and killed 31-year-old Joe Harris on July 22, 1979 after he stole a can of beer from the Chicago convenience store El Ammouri ran in the seventies. El Ammouri was arrested and charged with murder, but immediately posted bail. The 1979 murder suspect then skipped bail and fled the country. He has been at large until now. El Ammouri faces the original murder charge as well as a charge for jumping bail. His next court date will be on Monday.
Tom Dart, the sheriff who arrested El Ammouri, said the arrest should send a strong signal to those who try to skip out of town after being arrested. Dart said the “passage of time does not erase our commitment to bringing fugitives to justice. I want to thank the State Department and the various state and federal agencies for their outstanding intelligence gathering throughout this initiative as well as our team on the ground for their patience and professionalism.”
El Ammouri was arrested at O’Hare International Airport while trying to return to the country after almost 35 years on the run. He was returning to the United States from Jordan to attend his grandchild’s graduation. Cook County sheriff’s spokeswoman Eleni Demertzis said El Ammouri had a connecting flight from O’Hare to an airport in Tennessee.
The operation to track and arrest El Ammouri involved the police, the United States State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service, the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Custom’s Enforcement, and the US Embassy in Jordan.
It is suspected that the 1979 murder suspect was previously in the country for nine months in 1998. It is unclear how he was able to enter and exit the country without being detected by law enforcement.
by Tony Sokol