Bail was denied Saturday for a Chicago police officer charged in the fatal shooting of his child’s mother during an off-duty encounter earlier this week inside a Galewood neighborhood apartment on the Northwest Side.
Pierre Tyler, 29, who faces one count of first-degree murder, was relieved of police powers soon after Andris Wofford was found dead Thursday, authorities said.
Tyler and Wofford, also 29, were dating and had a 9-month-old child together, Cook County prosecutors said during a bond hearing. The couple had one prior documented domestic dispute, but charges were never filed in that case, according to prosecutors.
During their relationship, Tyler had a second child with another woman, which led to an argument Dec. 5 when Wofford learned he had a pending child support hearing, prosecutors said.
The next day, Wofford, thinking Tyler had secretly married the mother of his other child, decided to confront Tyler, telling several family members she was going to do so, prosecutors said.
About 4 p.m. Wednesday, Tyler went to Wofford’s apartment building in the 2100 block of North Nashville, with surveillance video showing him walking in the front door of her unit, prosecutors said.
Between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m., Wofford contacted family members from her cellphone asking them to pick up her child from day care, prosecutors said.
Neighbors allegedly heard Tyler and Wofford arguing around 7 p.m., with one neighbor reporting a loud, muffled bang sometime between 8:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. No more arguing was heard after that, prosecutors said.
Surveillance video allegedly showed Tyler leaving the back door of the apartment at 9:02 p.m. with a gun inside a holster on his back. No one else was seen entering or exiting the apartment throughout the evening.
Wofford’s father, who had been watching her child, got a text message from her phone at 9:11 p.m. saying she would be there in a bit, but she never showed up, prosecutors said.
The next morning, her parents called police, who found Wofford inside the front door of the apartment with a fatal gunshot wound to the head.
She was killed by a 9mm bullet, matching the caliber of a pistol Tyler claimed to detectives that he left at Wofford’s apartment, prosecutors said. That gun wasn’t found. Her keys and cellphone were missing, too, authorities said.
Tyler, a CPD tactical officer who joined the force in 2016, allegedly told investigators he was at Wofford’s apartment until 9 p.m., and then left to meet a confidential informant for work. But his partners said they weren’t with him and that it would be “abnormal” for Tyler to go on his own, prosecutors said.
Tyler, a Prosser High School graduate, served in the U.S. Army for eight years with two combat deployments, according to his defense attorney, who called the evidence against Tyler “circumstantial.”
A judge ordered him jailed without bond ahead of his next court hearing, scheduled for Dec. 21.
