In the video, Van Dyke begins firing at McDonald within about 30 seconds of arriving on the scene, near Pulaski Road and 41st Street – though the other officers already on the scene did not fire.
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When public officials refuse to release a video that shows alleged misconduct by a police officer, expect the worst.
Officer Jason Van Dyke told investigators that McDonald lunged at him before he shot McDonald 16 times last October.
Van Dyke told an investigator that he feared that McDonald would rush him with the knife or launch it at him. And that “in defense of his life”, Van Dyke “backpedaled and fired his handgun at McDonald, to stop the attack”.
In a statement to the media, Madigan said she knows “the vast majority of officers in the Chicago Police Department serve with bravery, honor and integrity”.
Van Dyke is now charged with murder in McDonald’s death.
– Fairfax, Virginia: Records in the March 2013 police shooting death of John Geer – including the officer’s name- were released 17 months later in response to a judge’s order in a civil lawsuit.
But several officers, including Van Dyke, who is now charged with first degree murder, filed official reports after the incident describing McDonald as aggressively approaching officers while armed with a knife.
“If the criminal investigation concludes that any officer participated in any wrongdoing, we will take swift action”, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement.
Heard audio of Chicago shooting?
More than $2 million in federal and city funding will be used to boost the police department’s initial 29-camera pilot program to a 1,400 camera program.
“It is a step in the right direction, and I can only say finally, finally, finally after 14 months of fighting the city on this, they’re now going to release the video”, Oppenheimer said Thursday.
CHICAGO (AP) There’s often little consistency in US cities’ policies on how quickly to release videos of police officers shooting civilians under disputed circumstances, with many municipalities making decisions as they go or waiting to act until political pressure or court rulings force the issue. But Earl-Hubbard said judges have pushed back recently, insisting that city officials specify precisely how a video release could impede an investigation.
Messages left for Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s spokeswoman, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez’ spokeswoman and a police union weren’t immediately returned.
Hundreds of pages of newly released Chicago police reports from the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald are striking for one, simple thing: They are dramatically at odds with the dash-cam videotape that has sparked protests across Chicago, cost the city’s top cop his job and embroiled Mayor Rahm Emanuel in scandal. “VD continued firing. O appeared to be attempting to get up, still holding the knife, pointing at VD”.
The reports are written in police shorthand, and refer to Van Dyke as VD – and call him a victim. He said he eventually kicked the knife away from McDonald and then told the dying teenager “Hang in there” as an ambulance was called. “Blade forward. Swinging knife in aggressive, exaggerated manner”, the report states.
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The police reports are blacked out in places, with those redactions covering signatures, a reporter’s cell phone number, the serial number of the officer’s gun and McDonald’s address. A medical examiner’s report said the hallucinogen PCP was found in his system.
