Pressure is mounting on Superintendent of Police Eddie Johnson to release the findings of a report into the matter by Chicago Inspector General Joe Ferguson. Video released past year shows Officer Jason.
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In a statement to fellow officers, Johnson said that in calling for the seven dismissals, he was accepting the recommendation of the Office of Inspector General, which recently released its investigation of the case. Officers who were at the scene supported Mr. Van Dyke’s account of the event, saying that he shot in self-defense, suggesting that Laquan had lunged at police.
As part of process, Johnson will submit his recommendations to the Chicago Police Board, which will ultimately decide whether to fire the officers.
It took 13 months for the Chicago Police Department to release the dashboard camera footage of Laquan’s death, and only then after being ordered to do so by a judge.
The officers, who have not been named, technically still have their jobs for now.
Although the inspector general recommended that 10 officers be fired for violating “Rule 14,” which requires that officers provide truthful statements in police reports, the Chicago Police Department said in a statement Thursday “that there is insufficient evidence to prove” allegations with respect to one officer.
However, the final decision will be handed down by a police oversight board appointed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
The death of McDonald, who was shot 16 times by an officer in 2014, sparked an outcry in a city already mired in police and community tensions.
The announcement about First Deputy Chief John Escalante comes a day after the CPD announced the departure of another high-ranking official, Deputy Chief David McNaughton, who was harshly criticized for deciding the police shooting of McDonald was justified.
Van Dyke’s partner, Joseph Walsh, told an investigator he repeatedly yelled “Drop the knife!” at McDonald and backed up as the teenager advanced at the officers. He has since pleaded not guilty. Fellow officers portrayed McDonald as waving a knife threateningly right before Van Dyke fired. The graphic footage shows Van Dyke shooting the teen execution-style as he walked away.
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“While I know that this type of action can come with many questions and varying opinions, please know that these decisions were not made lightly”, Johnson wrote in a Thursday message to officers, the Sun-Times reports.
