Man gets 28 years for luring Chicago firefighters into home, threatening them with knife
CHICAGO - A man accused of luring two Chicago firefighters into a gasoline-doused home and threatening them with a knife has been sentenced to 28 years in prison, according to court records.
Man sentenced for luring firefighters
The backstory:
Melvin Jordan, who was 47 at the time of the attack, was charged with attempted murder, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated unlawful restraint and unlawful use of a weapon in connection with the 2023 incident.
Pictured is Melvin Jordan. (IDOC)
Jordan was sentenced Wednesday to 28 years in prison, court records show.
The incident unfolded as firefighters responded to a car fire in the garage of Jordan's home in the 7700 block of South Marshfield Avenue in Chicago's Auburn Gresham neighborhood, according to a previous FOX Chicago report.
After firefighters extinguished the blaze, Jordan told two of them that he smelled gas in his basement and asked them to investigate.
Once in the basement, the firefighters said they did not smell gas and saw Jordan quickly head back upstairs. They followed him, and when they reached the top of the stairs, Jordan confronted them with a large knife, according to the previous report.
The firefighters also detected a strong odor of an accelerant and noticed that the home's doors had been boarded up.
Jordan ordered the firefighters back into the basement, according to the report. Instead, they struggled with him, and a battalion chief was eventually able to alert firefighters and police outside.
The two firefighters were pulled to safety. Jordan then barricaded himself in a bathroom with two knives and an empty gun holster.
After Jordan told authorities he wanted to harm himself, firefighters broke down the bathroom door, and Jordan was taken into custody. He was later taken to a hospital.
Court records previously showed Jordan was sentenced in 2007 to 35 years in prison for murder and an additional six years for attempted murder, with the sentences to be served consecutively.
Jordan was granted a new trial in 2019 after arguing that he had received ineffective assistance from his attorney.
The Source: The information in this article was provided by a previous FOX Chicago article and court documents.