The Chicago Police Department is facing new criticism following the release of post-incident reports from the Laquan McDonald shooting, as community leaders Saturday night have concerns over documents that appear to contradict the dashcam video.
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The fallout from McDonald’s death – and the fact that it took 13 months for the police department to release the video of the shooting – has rocked Chicago and led to Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy’s resignation. While the video shows McDonald walking away from the officers, Van Dyke and others claim the 17-year-old “swung his knife at them in an aggressive and exaggerated manner”.
Dashcam video released last month shows McDonald moving away from the officers when he was shot.
Van Dyke was one of the first officers on the scene, and was later tasked with writing the general offense case report.
Van Dyke has pleaded not guilty.
In a subsequent interview, Van Dyke told investigators that he was aware at the time he fired at McDonald that the teen had punctured the tire of a police vehicle moments before.
The city late Friday released hundreds of pages of police reports and other investigation documents pertaining to the case, including a December 2012 bulletin warning officers about a “revolver knife” that Van Dyke cited.
Emanuel’s administration also established a $5.5m fund to compensate victims of a Chicago police officer’s years-long torture of up to 120 mostly black suspects. The officers would have Fifth Amendment protection for anything they said during an internal investigation, but their initial police reports could be used in an obstruction of justice case against them, said Phil Turner, a former federal prosecutor in Chicago.
Van Dyke’s partner, identified as Joseph Walsh, told an investigator that he repeatedly yelled “Drop the knife!” at McDonald and backed up as the teenager “continued to advance toward the officers”. The police reports are blacked out in places, with those redactions covering signatures, a reporters cell phone number, the serial number of the officers gun and McDonalds address. In addition, Chicago authorities have not yet given a convincing explanation as to why the videos released this past week did not have audio, even though audio should have been recorded in conjunction with the videos. Another report describes how Van Dyke feared for his life. He said the crimes of a small number of officers shouldnt taint the whole police department, but that he should have known that a delay in releasing the video would raise suspicions because of its checkered history of misconduct.Emanuel fired Chicago Police Supt.
The embattled mayor has called for an independent review of the police department to determine whether there was any deliberate attempt to cover up the nature of the shooting. The authority has not released its report on the McDonald shooting. The statement said “swift action” would be taken if any wrongdoing is found.
Requests for comment to representatives for Emanuel, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez and the police review authority weren’t immediately returned.
Dorothy Holmes, and her attorney, Michael Oppenheimer, claim Holmes’ son, Ronald Johnson, was unarmed when he was shot by a police officer during a foot chase, eight days before the Laquan McDonald shooting in October 2014. PCP, a hallucinogenic drug, was found in McDonald’s system, according to a medical examiner’s report among the documents.
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“VD believed O was attacking w/knife”, said a report of Van Dyke’s account, referring to Van Dyke as VD and McDonald as O, or the offender. One of the police reports said the knife’s blade was open. But, in another contradiction, one of the police reports said the recovered knifes blade was in the open position.One of the reports noted what it called McDonalds irrational behavior, such as ignoring verbal directions, growling and making noises.
