Chicago man charged in 2013 Aurora shooting
A 24-year-old Chicago man, already in prison on a previous weapons offense in Cook County, has been charged in a 2013 shooting in Aurora.
Darrell D. Miller, who last lived on the 10000 block of South Green Street in Chicago, has been charged in DuPage County with aggravated battery with a firearm in connection with a Jan. 5, 2013, shooting that injured three Peoria men at an apartment complex parking lot in the 2600 block of Village Green Drive in Aurora.
Police said the shooting occurred when a then 17-year-old Chicago woman and one of the Peoria men met to exchange a 13-month old boy for parental visitation purposes. The baby's mother arrived in a vehicle with Miller and another man and woman, both 22, and from Chicago. The baby's father was with four other men ages 19, 21, 22 and 59, and all from Peoria.
During the transfer of the baby from the father's custody to the mother's, an argument broke out between the 22-year-old man who was with Miller and the baby's father.
Police said the argument turned physical between the pair and they engaged in a short fight. As they were walking back to their respective vehicles, Miller allegedly fired multiple shots at the minivan occupied by the men from Peoria.
The baby's father, along with the 19- and 59-year-old, were all hit by gunfire. The 59-year-old man, who was driving the minivan, accelerated as he attempted to flee the scene and ended up hitting a parked vehicle in the area of Village Green Drive and Shelly Lane. The man then drove to Rush Copley Medical Center.
The car occupied by Miller and the three others from Chicago, along with the baby, fled the scene with the baby's mother driving. Police say she dropped Miller off near New York Street and Eola Road and the four went back to Chicago.
The 59-year-old man from Peoria was the most seriously injured with a gunshot wound to the chest. The baby's father was shot in the leg and the 19-year-old man was shot in the face.
"The charges lodged in this case illustrate that even after two years, the Aurora police will continue to do everything in their power to hold offenders accountable," Aurora Police Chief Greg Thomas said in a written statement. "This was a callous, violent act that occurred in the middle of the day in which many more people could have been injured or worse."
Miller, who is held in the Western Illinois Correctional Center, is expected to be transferred to the Aurora Police Department for processing and will be held in the DuPage County jail in Wheaton. His bond has been set at $300,000.