No Bond For Man Charged in Forest Park Shooting

Maywood, IL - A west suburban man was ordered held without bond on Tuesday after being charged with the murder of a UIC student last week in Forest Park.

Darrell Topps, 29, of Bellwood, was arrested Friday night and formally charged Monday with one count of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder, according to Forest Park police Deputy Chief Tom Aftanas.

At the Maywood Courthouse on Tuesday morning, Topps was ordered held without bond and a preliminary hearing was set for June 30, according to Cook County State's Attorney's office spokesman Andy Conklin.

Topps had been identified by police as a suspect in the April 15 fatal shooting of Keyana Bates, 18, of 1612 S. 1st Ave. in Maywood, Aftanas said. Police had Topps under surveillance and he was arrested outside a Burger King restaurant in the 4900 block of North Avenue.

Bates was one of three people sitting in a vehicle in the driveway of a residence on the 800 block of Dunlop Avenue about 10 p.m. on June 15 when a suspect walked up to the vehicle and opened fired, according to Forest Park police Chief Jim Ryan said.

Fifteen shots were fired. Two penetrated Bates' seat and struck her in the back. The driver was shot in the shoulder. The backseat passenger, a 19-year-old Maywood man, was not injured.

Bates was taken to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood where she was pronounced dead at 12:38 a.m. on June 16, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office. Her death was ruled a homicide.

The second shooting victim, the driver, was treated at Loyola and released, Ryan said. Although the shooting may be a "gang-related or narcotics-related" retaliation, Bates was not the intended target, he said.

A student at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Bates had "little or no arrest record," Ryan said. Police believe the driver of the vehicle, another 19-year-old Maywood man, was the shooter's target.

Aftanas said Tuesday that police are "not 100 percent certain" the shooter acted alone and the case remains under investigation by Forest Park police and the Forest Park detectives and the West Suburban Major Crimes Task Force.