Jury Finds Chicago Man Guilty in Double-Slaying, Including Chicago Cop

Caption: Convicted killer Timothy Herring Jr. was 19 when he gunned on-duty Chicago police evidence technician Michael Flisk (top, left to right) and former CHA police officer Stephen Peters in November 2010.

A Cook County jury found a Chicago man guilty in the double slayings of an on-duty Chicago police officer and a former Chicago Housing Authority officer following a week-long jury on Wednesday.

Timothy Herring, Jr., 24, was convicted of first degree murder and burglary for the November 2010 murders of Chicago police evidence technician Michael Flisk, 46, and retired CHA officer Stephen Peters, 44.

Herring was 19 and on parole at the time when both officers were gunned down at close range in a southeast side garage, prosecutors said.

According to a news release from the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office, Peters owned a red Mustang that was parked inside the garage behind the home where his mother lived in the 8100 block of South Burnham.

Peters had called police on Nov. 26, 2010 to report the theft of car stereo equipment and other parts.

Flisk was in full uniform and was taking photographs of the car and garage when Herring returned to the scene of the crime to look for more items to steal, prosecutors said.

Peters was standing in the alley when Herring approached and said he knew who committed the burglary but Peters told him it didn’t matter because fingerprints had already been recovered from the scene, news reports said.

It was at that moment that Herring started walking away when he turned around and fired his weapon, prosecutors said.

Hearing the gunshots from inside her home, Peters’ mother looked out the window when she saw her son lying in the alley bleeding and immediately called 911,

As she called for emergency assistance, prosecutors said she heard two more gunshots and observed a male with a hood covering his head walking in the alley and pushing the garbage cans. Both men had sustained two fatal gunshot wounds to the head.

Fisk was a 20-year veteran of the Chicago Police Department.

During the trial, prosecutors played tapes of Peters’ mother’s anguished 911 calls pleading for help. Residents, many of them families of police officers on the city’s South Side, also showed up on opening day of testimony at the George N. Leighton Criminal Court Building at 26th and California to show their support for the slain officers’ families.

Two of Herring’s cousins also testified that he allegedly admitted to killing both officers. Herring’s public defender argued that both cousins were merely ganging up on Herring in order to collect a $10,000 reward, WGN News reported.

The jury began deliberating on Tuesday afternoon and returned the verdict Wednesday morning after being sequestered overnight.

“This was an evil and heinous crime that stole the lives of two brave men who did not deserve to have their futures cut short,” Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez said in a written statement. “We hope that this verdict brings some measure of justice and closure for the families of Officer Michael Flisk and Stephen Peters.”

Herring faces a mandatory natural life sentence in prison. He has been held without bond since his arrest in December 2010 at the Cook County Jail.