A Cook County judge slapped two men with unusually high bonds and electronic monitoring restrictions after prosecutors accused them of illegally carrying defaced firearms during a “large group” incident in the Loop over the weekend.
While neither prosecutors nor Judge Maryam Ahmad specifically referred to the enormous crowd that police wrangled for more than five hours, Ahmad pulled information from police reports to point out that the men were being accused of having guns in the Loop that night.
Myron Westley, 21, and Darrick Dillon, 18, are each charged with felony unlawful possession of a firearm with a defaced serial number and misdemeanor reckless conduct. Police arrested them separately, about two hours apart.
Prosecutors said police who were patrolling near a shooting saw Westley walking with a group of people, then break away and run as they approached. Officers said he was carrying a backpack that appeared to weighed down by a heavy object.
Cops pursued Westley into a Red Line station somewhere along State Street where he allegedly threw the backpack onto the train tracks while in view of CTA surveillance cameras.
Officers detained Westley and recovered the backpack, which contained a loaded 45-caliber handgun that had a defaced serial number, Assistant State’s Attorney Kim Pressling said.
Pressling did not say where the shooting had occurred or where the arrest took place, other than at a Red Line station on State Street.
Westley was charged with felony unlawful use of a weapon in 2020, but prosecutors allowed him to plead that down to a misdemeanor gun offense, Pressling said. He was also adjudicated delinquent for possessing a stolen motor vehicle when he was a juvenile, she said.
Westley’s public defender told Ahamd that works at Burger King and can’t afford any amount of money for bail.
After hearing from the attorneys, Ahmad asked Pressling about some details she saw in the police report.
“Ms. Pressling. This location is the Loop. 50 South State Street. Correct?” Ahmad asked.
“Yes, judge. Right by the Red Line.”
“This was at 12:22 in the morning?” the judge asked.
“Correct,” Pressling confirmed.
Ahmad repeated the arrest time and location while explaining her rationale for the bail conditions she was about to set: $90,000 plus electronic monitoring. Westley must post 10% of that amount to get out of jail.
Earlier in Sunday’s court session, Assistant State’s Attorney Sean Kelly told Ahmad about Dillon’s arrest.
He said police responded to a call of a person wearing a yellow hoodie who had a gun. Cops found someone matching the description, and he ran away while “holding the butt of an L-shaped object” in his hoodie pocket, Kelly continued.
Officers caught the man and allegedly recovered a loaded 40-caliber handgun bearing a defaced serial number from his hoodie pocket.
Kelly said Dillon, 18, has no criminal background.
“Mr. Kelly, I’m looking at the address of the arrest. Am I reading this correctly?” Ahmad asked. “This says 50 East Adams Street. So that’s the Loop, right?”
“It is,” Kelly replied.
“Alright.”
The judge also noted that the arrest took place at 10:30 p.m.
“In the evening. In the Loop,” she said before ordering Dillon held in lieu of $50,000. He must post 10% of that to go home on electronic monitoring.
Police said three other people are facing felony gun charges from the “large group” incident, including a 17-year-old charged with fatally shooting a 16-year-old near The Bean. Another 16-year-old is charged with carrying a gun near the shooting scene.