COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — A Cook County judge on Tuesday found Bryant Brewer guilty of murdering Chicago Police Officer Thor Soderberg in 2010.
The veteran officer was shot with his own gun — once in his back and twice in his head — as he left work on July 7, 2010. Soderberg was in a Chicago Police Department parking lot in Englewood, and on his way to a volleyball game when he was attacked by Brewer.
Brewer's attorneys have long argued their client was mentally ill, suffering from schizophrenia, and acted in self-defense when he shot Soderberg.
Assistant Public Defender William Wolf on Tuesday asked Cook County Judge Timothy Joyce to consider a ruling of not guilty due to insanity.
But as the seven-day bench trial drew to a close later that evening, Joyce said he believed Brewer "brutally, callously, viciously and without compunction murdered Officer Thor Soderberg."
The judge also said "there is simply no evidence of schizophrenia" and that if Soderberg "was shot in the back, that's wholly inconsistent with self-defense." Brewer was found guilty of first-degree murder, as well as several counts of attempted first-degree murder, armed robbery and discharge of a firearm.
When Joyce announced the ruling, Soderberg's widow, Jennifer Loudon, let out an audible sigh and dropped her head to her lap.
After court, Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy — who had been sitting in the front row with First Deputy Superintendent Al Wysinger — hugged Loudon.
The bench trial began July 27 and included testimony from Loudon, several police officers and investigators, psychiatrists, psychologists, a medical examiner, a paramedic and Brewer himself.
According to court testimony, Brewer encountered Soderberg in a police parking lot in the 6100 block South Racine Avenue about 3:40 p.m. on July 7, 2010. Soderberg had left work an hour early to make a volleyball game, and his partner dropped him off near his yellow Subaru hatchback.
Surveillance footage from two CPD cameras shows Brewer entering and exiting the parking lot. But neither camera caught what transpired in between. According to court testimony, twelve minutes of footage is missing from one camera, while eight minutes is missing from the second.
Prosecutors claim Brewer attacked Soderberg, beating him before stealing Soderberg's gun and shooting the veteran officer once in his back and twice in his face. Brewer then went on to shoot at a handyman who lived across the street, as well as several police officers who responded to the gunshots. Brewer was stopped when one of the officers shot him in the abdomen.
The defense team argued that Soderberg was mentally ill and suffering from schizophrenia — and that Brewer was acting in self-defense during the fight with Soderberg. The gun fell to the ground, the attorneys argued, and Brewer responded by shooting the officer.
According to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office, one bullet entered Soderberg's back, moving toward his chest. The other two hit the officer's nose and side of his face, moving downward and exiting through his neck.
During a heavily sarcastic rebuttal, Assistant State's Attorney Brian Sexton on Tuesday pointed toward the medical examiner's findings and called Brewer's claim of mental illness "convenient."
"He fakes symptoms," Sexton said. "He fakes voices. He fakes other stuff so he can get medication and get high. ... He assassinated one of the finest in our city."
Wolf argued that Brewer only had an IQ of 72, and that he's likely had problems with mental illness his whole life. If Brewer had intended to shoot a police officer on that July 2010 afternoon, Wolf asked, why would he have gone to the station without a gun or any other weapon? Why would he need to use Soderberg's gun?
"The mentally ill in this country, like Mr. Brewer, they're discarded. They're ignored. They're feared. We ... laugh at them, and we don't treat them," Wolf said as he argued that his client should be found not guilty by reason of insanity, or sentenced to time in an appropriate treatment facility.
Post-trial motions, which could include sentencing, will be heard Sept. 9.
Soderberg’s memorial service was held in Rockefeller Memorial Chapel at the University of Chicago.
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