Accomplice of slain suspect in Des Plaines bank robbery has been charged
The alleged getaway driver of a bank robbery suspect who was shot and killed by a Des Plaines police officer Tuesday while fleeing to Chicago has been charged with bank robbery himself in U.S. District Court.
Maurice Murphy, 32, of Chicago is accused of having stolen $15,536 in U.S. currency from the Bank of America branch at 1300 E. Oakton St. He has a detention hearing scheduled for 3 p.m. Monday.
According to the federal complaint, a witness saw Murphy running suspiciously through backyards on the west side of Chestnut Street in Des Plaines at the same time that police sirens could be heard. When he reached a particular backyard on the 1900 block, the witness and friends chased and tackled Murphy, who was taken into custody by officers at about 4:45 p.m.
Christopher Terrell Willis, 32, of Chicago, who is suspected of being the masked robber who held up a bank teller at gunpoint at about 4:30 p.m. that day, was fatally shot by a Des Plaines officer who had pursued him into UpBeat Music and Arts school on Irving Park Road in Chicago. The officer's gunfire also struck a 15-year-old boy who is a student intern at the school in the arm and abdomen, Chicago police said.
Minutes earlier, Willis had shot a 46-year-old Chicago police officer in the head in an exchange of gunfire near Irving Park Road and Lowell Avenue in Chicago, at the end of a high-speed chase on the eastbound Kennedy Expressway. Willis then ran into the music school where he was fatally shot by the Des Plaines officer, authorities said.
Both the boy and the Chicago police officer are expected to make full recoveries, Chicago police said.
The masked robber later identified as Willis left the Des Plaines bank with money in a bag in which the teller had placed a GPS tracking device. Willis then got into a getaway car which authorities say was driven by Murphy.
With the help of witnesses, officers spotted the vehicle in an alley a few blocks away near the 1900 block of Ash Street.
After the duo got out of the car, Murphy and Willis went in different directions and Willis evaded detection. Police used dogs to search for him for the next two hours.
About 6:45 p.m., Willis approached a resident at gunpoint on the 1900 block of Pine Street in Des Plaines, demanded her car keys and fled in her Buick sedan, authorities said.
Officers spotted the car, leading to the high-speed chase that lasted until Willis exited at Irving Park Road where Chicago and Illinois State Police were waiting for him. He ran from the vehicle and toward the music school during an exchange of gunfire with police.