FOURTH SUSPECT ARRESTED IN OAK PARK BANK ROBBERY

Thomas J. Kneir, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); Terry G. Hillard, Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department (CPD) and Michael F. Sheahan, Cook County Sheriff announced today the arrest of DESMOND R. KING, age 25, of Berwyn, Illinois. KING was arrested by members of the FBI's Violent Crimes Task Force (VCTF), without incident, late last night in the vicinity of 7800 South Lowe in Chicago.

KING was charged in a criminal complaint filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Chicago with one count of Bank Robbery, which is a felony offense. According to the complaint, KING and three others robbed the Charter One Bank branch, located at 6020 West Roosevelt Road, of over $18,000, early Wednesday afternoon. KING and two co-defendants, PAUL MICHAEL BURGESS and MARCELLUS LEE, are alleged to have entered the bank armed with handguns while a fourth robber, DEMOND KING, waited outside in a get-away vehicle.

The robbers were spotted as they fled the bank by an alert customer, who notified the Oak Park Police Department. Officers who were on routine patrol were alerted to the robbery by police radio transmissions and began pursuit of the robbers. After a brief chase that resulted in a crash of the robbers' vehicle, BURGESS, LEE and DEMOND KING were taken into custody. DESMOND R. KING fled the crash scene on foot. Subsequent investigation by the VCTF identified him as the robber and led to his arrest last night.

DESMOND R. KING is scheduled to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ian H. Levine in Chicago, later today, at which time he will be formally charged. BURGESS, LEE and DEMOND KING appeared before Judge Levine yesterday, at which time they were ordered held without bond pending their next scheduled court appearance. If convicted of the charges filed against them, all four men face a maximum penalty of up to 20 years incarceration.

The Chicago FBI's VCTF is comprised of FBI Special Agents, Chicago Police Detectives and Investigators from the Cook County Sheriff's Police Department.

The public is reminded that a complaint is not evidence of guilt and that all defendants in a criminal case are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

EDITOR's NOTE: A copy of the complaint filed in this case is available from the Chicago FBI Press Office at (312) 786-2645.