Officer Michael Flisk (Chicago Police Dept. Photo)
Reporting Mike Krauser
UPDATED 11/26/10 9:58 p.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) - An on-duty Chicago police evidence technician and a retired Chicago Housing Authority police officer were shot and killed Friday in the South Chicago neighborhood after a burglary at the retired officer’s garage.
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Police Officer Michael Flisk, 46, 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.
Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis said that there was a burglary in a garage at about 1:30 p.m. in the 8100 block of South Manistee Avenue, and Flisk was processing the scene when he and the retired CHA officer were shot.
Officer Flisk was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he died, Weis said. The retired officer was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he died.
Officer Flisk 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.
A police officer at the scene said the burglary happened at the retired CHA officer’s house.
Calumet Area police detectives remained at the crime scene investigating. Weis said police planned to “squeeze the neighborhood” in an effort to find the killer.
One witness in the neighborhood said police armed with assault weapons were going door to door, possibly in search of a suspect.
Neighborhood resident Avis Walker, 44, said she was sleeping upstairs in her home when she heard two shots.
“I sat up and heard two or three more shots behind it,” Walker said.
About five minutes later, ambulances and police officers arrived at the scene, she said.
Walker said she believes one of the wounded men was a police officer who lives just east of her across an alley on Burnham Avenue.
“We heard it was a burglary,” Walker said.
Her mother, Frieda Walker, said there have been several break-ins in the neighborhood recently, including a man who tried to steal a car from her garage. The man ran away when her husband saw him, she said.
“There have been a lot of shootings, too, but not on this block,” Frieda Walker said.
She said her neighbors have a block club and regularly communicate about crime in the area.
The Chicago Police Memorial Foundation is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person(s) responsible for the murder of Chicago Police Officer Michael Flisk. Anyone with information may place a confidential, toll-free call to 888-976-7468.
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.
The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.
