'No Solid Leads' In Murders Of Cop, Retired Officer
UPDATED 11/27/10 - 6:25 p.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Despite an intensive day and night search, Chicago Police detectives, assisted by federal agents, have "no solid leads" in the murders Friday of a police evidence technician and a retired Chicago Housing Authority police officer.
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"The question is, what else is he capable of?" Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis said of the killer during a news conference Saturday.
Results of autopsies, conducted Saturday by the Cook County Medical Examiner's office, showed that both men, Officer Michael Flisk and retired CHA officer Stephen Peters, died of multiple gunshot wounds.
Weis said detectives do not believe that the murders were the result of a robbery attempt.
Officers responding to the 1:30 p.m. Friday shootings found Flisk's police star, both men's handguns, and the equipment Flisk routinely used to process a crime scene, according to Weis.
Flisk had been called to the scene to investigate a break-in and theft from an automobile parked in a garage behind Peters' home on the 8100 block of South Burnham Avenue.
Weis said the call had come into the city's 311 non-emergency call center, and that Flisk was the first officer to respond to the scene.
"He did not walk into a situation that was any more unusual than he has probably done a thousand times in his career," Weis said.
Weis said Flisk would not have been the first responder, had there been any reason to believe danger existed. He said the department would make an evaluation to determine if evidence technicians need backup when performing their jobs.
He said he has seen no evidence to indicate that Flisk was targeted for some reason, although he refused comment when a reporter asked if he was aware of any attempts by street gangs to "dome" (kill) a police officer.
Flisk joined the Chicago Police Department in January of 1991. Officer Flisk was an evidence technician assigned to the Evidence Technician Team – South unit for the past 3 and a half years.
He received 67 awards during the course of his 19-year career. He earned 55 Honorable Mentions among many other notable achievements highlighting courageous and distinguished service. He has a wife and four children and has three siblings in the Police Department.
"It's surreal. Even when I was told, it didn't resonate," said Flisk's sister-in-law, Gina Flisk. "He's the one who kind of smoothed everything over with everybody. He wasn't the oldest, but he was the one who kind of made everybody happy."
Also Saturday, the widow of Peters, the other victim, was paying tribute to her slain husband.
"He was a wonderful man," D'jana Peters said. "God couldn't have sent a better person."
Sunyra Lewis, who worked alongside Stephen Peters when he was a CHA police officer, was angry about the death of her friend.
"The world is going to hell in a hand basket," she told CBS 2. "It makes you want to be a vigilante."
The Chicago Police Memorial Foundation has offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Flisk's killer, and Weis said he is hoping that the reward prompts those who may have information about the shootings to come forward.
The Foundation can be reached at (888) 976-7468. Calumet Area detectives, who are also seeking information in the case, can be reached at (312) 747-8272.
The shooting follows Monday night's fatal shooting of off-duty Chicago Police Officer David Blake, a SWAT team member. He was found in his personal sport-utility vehicle, in the 2900 block of West Seipp Street on the city's Southwest Side.
No one has been charged in Blake's slaying.
Weis said the circumstances surrounding the murders of Flisk and Peters were far different from those in the murder Monday of off-duty Officer David Blake, who was shot to death Monday night in his sport-utility vehicle, parked on the 2900 block of West Seipp Street.
"We're talking to everybody and their brother" about the Blake case, Weis said, and said he was hopeful of getting a break in the Blake case "in the near future."
Flisk is the fifth Chicago Police officer to be killed this year from gunfire.
(The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.)
