Guilty verdict in double-murder of CPD officer and former CHA cop

Timothy Herring told a cousin he shot and killed Chicago Police Officer Michael Flisk and the retired CHA cop he knew as “Sweet Pea” because he didn’t want to go back to jail.

Herring, 24, was convicted Wednesday morning in the murder of the two men. He is now expected to spend the rest of his life behind bars.

“This case is another example of the senseless violence that we see unfortunately here in Chicago and the easy use of guns to take away two lives,” Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez said after the guilty verdicts were announced.

Timothy Herring | Cook County Sheriff’s Department photo

Flisk’s and Stephen Peters’ family members could be heard sobbing in the packed standing-room-only crowd filled with police officers when the jury foreman read the verdicts after eight hours of deliberation.

Their families didn’t speak with reporters after the verdict, but they tightly hugged supporters as tears slid down their cheeks.

Herring’s relatives also walked out of the courthouse without any comment.

“We are quite happy with the verdict,” Alvarez said. “. . . We hope that this verdict brings some sense of justice to the Flisk family and to the Peters family.”

Alvarez praised jurors for taking time to carefully examine the testimony of 40-plus witnesses who took the stand during the eight-day trial.

The jury was sequestered at an area hotel Tuesday night after six and a half hours of deliberations. The jurors reconvened for an hour and a half more Wednesday before finding Herring guilty on all charges, including burglary and knowing that Flisk was a police officer when he fired.

Herring faces mandatory life in prison without parole.

On Nov. 26, 2010, Herring, then a teenage parolee, shot Flisk, 46, as he processed the scene where Herring had stolen parts of Peters’ cherished Ford Mustang.

Peters, 44, kept his car in his mom’s garage and was guiding Flisk when Herring shot both of them in the head in an alley in the 8100 block of South Burnham Avenue.

Herring pulled the trigger right after he heard Flisk say he got a “good fingerprint,” authorities said.

When Herring saw Peters twitch after he collapsed to the ground, he came back and put another bullet in his victims’ heads.

State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez and Assistant State’s Attorney Thomas Mahoney before addressing reporters about the guilty verdicts in Timothy Herring’s murder trial.| Rummana Hussain/Sun-Times