The video shows officer Jason Van Dyke, who was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder, firing an entire magazine into 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. Van Dyke allegedly shoved the man into the squad vehicle and injured both of his shoulders. The videos, including the one from Van Dyke’s vehicle, did not include any audio of officers talking, either in the vehicles or over police radios, raising questions about why sirens outside the vehicles are audible but voices and other sounds from inside the vehicle are not.
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The officer’s lawyer said he feared for his life but prosecutors said there was no justification for his actions.
“The video clearly shows Laquan walking away and he was not threatening anybody and he certainly didn’t lunge at the police officer. But they do not have the right to… acts”, Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said Tuesday.
Throughout the week, protesters have expressed anger over the video of the shooting.
“This is a case that can’t be tried in the streets, it can’t be tried in the media, and it can’t be tried on Facebook”, Herbert said.
She adds that police officers across the country are doing their duty honorably “without resorting to unnecessary force”.
What continues to roil the black community is that police and prosecutor Alvarez waited 400 days to release the tape, well after last spring’s election in which Emanuel faced stiff competition and had to undergo the first-ever runoff election in Chicago history, an eyebrow-raising moment for an incumbent in a city renowned for its “machine”-like politics”. People gathered on the streets of Chicago Tuesday after the city released an initial video related to the incident.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson says officers involved should be fired or at least suspended.
The protesters held banners showing photos of other black people fatally shot by police in Chicago and elsewhere.
Investigation of the case comes amid a national debate on race and police tactics sparked by a series of high-profile killings of unarmed black men at the hands of mainly white law enforcement officers in several United States cities in the past two years, leading to widespread demonstrations and some violent unrest.
London was charged with aggravated battery of a police officer.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Chicago Supt. Legal experts say that charge for an off-duty cop is rare.
Demonstrators marched down through major downtown business district The Loop chanting in peaceful way.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel appealed for calm as the city prepared for possible protests.
City officials have been sharply criticized for waiting over one year since the incident to release the footage of the officer shooting the teenager 16 times and to bring charges against Van Dyke.
A six-page “tool kit” was distributed to teachers, with exercises created to help them and their students deal with McDonald’s death and the murder charges filed against Officer Jason Van Dyke. Van Dyke told investigators the man was stopped because he and other bystanders ran as police arrived.
“We can not go on like this”, she tweeted. Moreover, In May it was revealed, according to the Chicago Reporter website, that a video from a security camera at a Burger King on the scene had apparently been deleted by police in the hours after the shooting.
Police shootings are frequent in Chicago, the third-largest city in the United States with 2.7 million people, roughly one-third white, one-third black and one-third Hispanic.
One of those arrested was 38-year-old Dean M. Vanriper of Murrieta, California.
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Police have said the teen had a knife.
