It also strongly suggests that the city must have known just how incriminating the footage was, and that its release would all but guarantee a murder charge against Van Dyke.
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It’s the first time the Department of Justice has set its signs on the Chicago Police Department, making it the 23rd police unit to be similarly investigated since the beginning of the Obama administration. The mayor is expected to speak with federal agents sometime today.
As McDonald walked away from him, Van Dyke took at least one step forward and fired 16 rounds at McDonald in about 14 seconds and was reloading when another officer told him to hold his fire, prosecutors said.
The DOJ announced the investigation on December 7 soon after the release of video showing a white Chicago police officer fatally shooting a black teenager.
Emanuel revealed the meeting Wednesday, saying he would “welcome them, they’re here, we’re going to fully cooperate, everybody, and it is in our self-interest as a city that they’re here”.
A Cook County judge ordered video of the shooting publicly released last month, setting off a groundswell of protest across the city and persistent calls for the ousters of Mayor Rahm Emmanuel and State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez. Officer Van Dyke is free on bond.
Police murders and attempts to hide them may lead to the recall of Chicago’s Mayor Rahm Emanuel. McDonald was shot 16 times by the officer, who since has been indicted on murder charges.
A U.S. Department of Justice statement says members of the public are encouraged to call or email to share “information relevant to the investigation”.
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The Justice Department said Wednesday it is having “productive” talks on police reforms in Ferguson, Missouri, where a probe was opened after the fatal police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in 2014. “It is in our self-interest as a city that they’re here”, Emanuel said. Garry McCarthy and a series of resignations by some high-ranking officials in the department. Police have said that McDonald was carrying a knife and an autopsy revealed that he had PCP, a hallucinogenic drug, in his system.
