Daywatch: Chicago officer claims self defense in death of girlfriend

Good morning, Chicago.

Days before she was killed, Andris Wofford found a gun nestled among clothes in her laundry basket, prosecutors said, and then made a prophetic comment to a friend.

“If anything happens to me,” prosecutors said she told her friend shortly before her death in December 2021, “Pierre will have done it.”

She was referring to Pierre Tyler, the father of her 9-month-old daughter and then a Chicago police officer, according to prosecutors, who said her prediction would soon come to pass.

After an argument over another woman, Tyler fired a shot that killed the 29-year-old mother in her apartment in the 2100 block of North Nashville Avenue in the Northwest Side’s Galewood neighborhood, according to police and prosecutors.

But Tyler, 32, standing trial on murder charges, is arguing that the shooting was in self-defense. He plans to take the stand later this week, his attorney said, a relatively rare choice because of the risk of going up against prosecutors for questions under oath.

The jurors, who were sworn in yesterday, will decide which version they believe. The trial is expected to last until Friday.

Read the full story from the Tribune’s Madeline Buckley.

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