Determined to avoid arrest on a burglary charge, a teenage parolee shot and killed the victim of the break-in and the Chicago police evidence technician investigating the crime, police charged Monday."It's unfathomable. It's just unbelievable," said Calumet Area Cmdr. Keith Calloway. "It's just so egregious you can't put words to it."
Police said Timothy Herring, 19, on parole after an armed robbery conviction, returned to an alley in the 8100 block of South Burnham Avenue about an hour and a half after he allegedly broke into a customized Ford Mustang GT on Friday.
He allegedly gunned down Michael Flisk, a 20-year officer, and car owner Stephen Peters, who once worked as an officer for the Chicago Housing Authority.
Neither Flisk nor Peters -- who was armed with his own handgun because he feared the thief would return -- had a chance to defend themselves, police said.
Chicago police officers and evidence technicians share memories of their Officer Michael Flisk Monday. (Zbigniew Bzdak/ Chicago Tribune)
"The subject simply did not want to be caught for doing a burglary," Calloway said at a news conference to announce two counts of first-degree murder against Herring. "He's already on parole as it was and didn't want to be apprehended for doing (a) ... burglary."
Peters' mother said her son reported the burglary to police Friday, then found some car parts in an alley trash can. Suspecting the burglar planned to return for the parts, he retrieved a gun from his mother's house and went to the garage, Laura Peters said. Moments later, she said, she heard shots and looked outside her kitchen window to see her son lying in the alley.Herring, who lived across the alley from the Peters' home, was charged Monday in an unrelated shooting in June in addition to the fatal shooting of Flisk and Peters.
Physical evidence -- including ballistics evidence that tied the June shooting to the double murder -- has also been recovered, law-enforcement sources said. He was not charged earlier with the June shooting because the victim refused to cooperate and the investigation could not move forward, the sources said.
A second man, Timothy Willis, 22, was charged Monday with obstruction of justice and unlawful possession of a firearm. According to law-enforcement sources, Willis allegedly concealed the murder weapon from authorities in the days after the double homicide.
Flisk, 46, who was married and the father of four, was the second officer shot to death in just a week and the fifth overall since May. A sixth officer -- a sergeant -- was killed in a car crash in February while responding to a burglary, making it one of the more violent years for Chicago police in recent decades.
Peters was an Army veteran and was working as a lineman at AT&T. He was married and had three children.
"When we say everybody in the neighborhood liked Steve, we are not exaggerating," said his father, Robert Peters. "He was a genuinely good guy. (Herring) either didn't know him or he didn't care."
Earlier Monday, before the charges were announced, Flisk's co-workers talked to reporters about an officer they said was skilled and modest. He was known for thoroughly scouring crime scenes for fingerprints, often pausing to try to imagine the scene as the criminal saw it to better figure out where clues might be left.
Flisk, who came from a family of Chicago police officers, was going to be recognized by the department in coming days for his efforts to solve a burglary pattern in the Beverly neighborhood, they said.
"Mike was a great policeman, a great evidence technician," said Officer John Zalewski. "He would always make you laugh. He always had a great story ... and he really loved his family and was a great man."
The Peters family spent the day beginning to make arrangements for their son's funeral. News that a suspect was caught encouraged the family, which credited the swift actions of police.
"I figured they were going to get whoever this person was because of all of the evidence that was left behind," Robert Peters said. "It would be just a matter of catching up to him."
Neighbors said Herring lived with his grandfather. He was on electronic monitoring and had been ordered into substance-abuse counseling as a condition of his parole for the armed robbery conviction, according to state records.
He was arrested at the home Saturday evening.
Robert Peters said he wasn't surprised that Herring was from the neighborhood because he suspected the burglar had to know about his son's customized car.
"Who else would know he had it in the garage with all the contraptions on it?" he said.
Police said visitation for Flisk will be held from 3 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at Brady and Gill Funeral Home, 2929 W. 87th St., Evergreen Park. The funeral will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday at St. Rita of Cascia Shrine Chapel, 7740 S. Western Ave., Chicago.
See from Chicago Breaking News and WGN-TV: http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/11/teen-parolee-charged-with-killing-chicago-cop-former-cha-officer.html
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