Chicago police officer accused of killing girlfriend takes the stand: ‘As her arm goes up, the firearm goes off’
Pierre Tyler, once a Chicago police officer and now on trial for murder, stood up in the witness box and mimicked for the jury the series of events that he said led to the shooting death of his girlfriend.
Andris Wofford pointed a gun at him, he testified, her finger on the trigger, hands slightly shaking and eyes darting. Showing the movements to the courtroom, Tyler said he grabbed her in an attempt to disarm her, but instead, her hand went backward and the gun fired. Wofford was shot in the face.
“As her arm goes up, the firearm goes off,” he said. “Her body fell.”
Tyler, 32, is arguing before a jury at the Leighton Criminal Court Building that Wofford’s killing in December of 2021 was a matter of self-defense. He took the stand on Friday following a week of testimony.
In an aggressive line of questioning, prosecutors weren’t having it. Assistant State’s Attorney Michelle Papa asked Tyler to describe each movement of his body during the shooting.
“It makes no sense, I agree,” Papa said in one instance when Tyler struggled to describe his stance.
“Objection,” Tyler’s attorney Tim Grace said loudly, which Judge Mary Margaret Brosnahan sustained.
Wofford, 29, the mother of Tyler’s young child, confronted him in her apartment in the 2100 block of North Nashville Avenue because she believed she had found evidence that he was married to another woman, prosecutors have alleged. Tyler testified that she was mistaken about a marriage, though acknowledged he was unfaithful.
During opening statements on Tuesday, Papa alleged that Tyler shot her as she tried to leave the apartment after the two argued. He then immediately began trying to cover up the shooting, lying to detectives who questioned him, she said.
A Chicago police detective testified on Thursday that Wofford’s body showed no sign of a struggle over the gun.
Grace, though, said Wofford, enraged and jealous, pointed one of Tyler’s guns at him. Tyler’s sister testified that her brother called her during the fight, and that she heard Wofford “screaming, yelling.”
Tyler told the jury that he removed his gun from his holster and put it on a table. As they argued, he said, Wofford picked it up and pointed it at him.
“I tell her to put the gun down, to calm down,” he said.
Then he reached for her in an attempt to take the gun away, he said, but her arm went up and the gun went off. Detectives never found the gun, they testified.
“How did you feel?” Grace asked.
“I can barely move,” he said.
He testified that he didn’t call 911 because he felt no one would believe him.
During the cross examination, Papa pressed him on the chain of events, noting in questions that Wofford’s nails were “perfect” with no sign of a struggle.
“She puts on her coat, zips it up, gets her wristlet, gets a mask, gets everything ready to go,” she said. “Then all of a sudden she decided she was going to grab the gun. Thats what you want us to believe?”
A detective who interviewed Tyler testified Tuesday that Tyler told him he was meeting with a confidential informant alone during the shooting. The detective told the jury it struck him as strange that Tyler would meet an informant alone without his weapon.
“You told detectives you went to meet a CI,” Papa said. “That was a lie.”
“It wasn’t,” Tyler responded.
“You went to meet a CI?” Papa asked.
“Saying a CI was a stretch,” he amended.
Attorneys are expected to deliver closing arguments this afternoon.