DECATUR - Benny E. Topps, 54, became Decatur's fifth murder victim at 10:05 a.m. Wednesday, when he was shot multiple times while standing in the 900 block of North Van Dyke Street.

Topps was taken to Decatur Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 10:24 a.m., said Dee Coventry, Macon County chief deputy coroner. An autopsy will be performed today at Memorial Medical Center in Springfield, and an inquest will be scheduled, she said.

Decatur patrol officers responded to calls of multiple shots fired at 10:06 a.m. Wednesday and found Topps in an alley off Van Dyke Street and a large crowd gathered in the area, said Decatur Deputy Police Chief Todd Walker.

Witnesses cooperated with officers, and a description of a newer-model Cadillac seen leaving the area was broadcast over the Illinois State Police Emergency Radio Network as a matter of routine protocol at 10:15 a.m. Witnesses indicated the car sped south on Van Dyke Street and west on Eldorado Street.

Witnesses also described the shooter as wearing dreadlocks and a multicolored hat such as reggae singers sometimes sport, which led police to believe the man may have been disguised.

Surveillance video at the nearby Super Discount Food & Liquor also was obtained by police and showed the suspect vehicle driving down the alley.

A Sangamon County state's attorney special investigator observed a vehicle matching the description of the suspect car headed west on Interstate 72 near Riverton, according to Illinois State Police.

The special investigator advised state troopers about the vehicle and stayed behind it until troopers pulled it over on southbound Interstate 55 near milepost 90, just south of the intersection with I-72.

Decatur police immediately took shooting witnesses to the site of the traffic stop, Walker said. Two men who were in the suspect vehicle were taken into custody and returned to Decatur for questioning, he said.

Inside the car, state troopers reportedly observed shell casings and a dreadlock wig.

Booked into the Macon County Jail on Wednesday evening for investigation of first-degree murder were Cornelius L. Jones, 34, and Dorian C. Harris, 32, both of East St. Louis, Walker said.

Late Wednesday afternoon, Decatur police detectives acquired a search warrant for the suspect vehicle and were working with the state police in Springfield to examine and process it, Walker said. Items believed to have a connection to the shooting were found, he said.

No motive for the shooting had been determined Wednesday, but the investigation into Topps' death was continuing, Walker said.

The year's previous homicide victims have been Vinson Banks, 45, shot May 6 in the 600 block of West Cushing Street; Robert Wesley Johnson, 23, shot May 12 in his home at 643 S. Sycamore St.; Jane Cole, 60, stabbed June 7 in her home at 630 E. Simpson Ave.; and Marcelle J. Brown, 28, shot June 30 in the 1300 block of East Prairie Avenue. Arrests have been made in all the deaths except that of Johnson.

Ron Ingram can be reached at ringram@herald-review.com or 421-7973.