Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke appeared in a Cook County courtroom Tuesday morning and pleaded “not guilty” in the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.
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The announcement from Mr. Emanuel expected Wednesday will be part of a larger overhaul of department policies on use of force.
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A spokesman for the mayor, Adam Collins, confirmed late Tuesday that Emanuel had arrived in Chicago.
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Not all Chicago police officers are now equipped with Tasers, which are electroshock weapons that fire dart-like electrodes that incapacitate but are non-lethal.
One of his plans is equipping every officer on street duty with a Taser and training them to use it by June 1, 2016. Herbert said Tuesday that he was continuing to consider such a request, but for now was satisfied with the selection of Gaughan, of the Circuit Court of Cook County, to hear the case.
Van Dyke, 37, faces six counts of first-degree murder and one of official misconduct in the death of 17-year-old McDonald.
Jason Van Dyke is “hanging in there” and wants to tell his side of what happened so he’s not seen “as this cold-blooded killer”, defense attorney Dan Herbert said after the court hearing.
Van Dyke was charged last month with murder just hours before dashcam video of him shooting McDonald 16 times was released, setting off protests and calls for changes to policing here. Herbert added that they haven’t ruled out asking for a change of venue. He has been tried and questioned on his aggressive nature and excessive force on numerous occasions. but has always gotten off. Althought there have never been criminal proceedings against Van Dyke since this case, a jury did award a Chicago citizen $350,000 as a result of Van Dyke’s excessive force during a traffic stop.
The police department says there are only a finite amount of Tasers in circulation, leaving about 30 per police district.
“The 55-year-old female victim was accidentally struck and tragically killed”, police said.
While Emanuel was vacationing in Cuba, Bettie Jones, 55, and Quintonio LeGrier, 19, were killed on December 26 by an officer responding to a call that LeGrier was threatening his father with a baseball bat.
It showed Mr Van Dyke shooting Laquan 16 times as the teenager walked away.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel says Chicago officers must be better trained in knowing the difference between when they can use a gun and when they should use a gun. Authorities said McDonald had taken PCP and was carrying a pocket knife.
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The release of the video set off protests, forced the resignation of the city’s police chief and has led to an ongoing wide-ranging civil rights investigation of the entire Chicago Police Department by the U.S. Department of Justice.
