The Latest on Chicago police recommending that seven police officer be fired in the Laquan McDonald case (all times local): 11:45 a.m. And Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder and is awaiting trial.
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Of 10 officers who were investigated over their roles in the McDonald shooting, seven were accused of making false reports or false statements, police spokesman Frank Giancamilli said in a phone interview on Thursday.
One high-ranking officer caught up in the scandal, Anthony Wojcik, retired in May.
The inspector general’s report also cited two other officers who have since retired, police officials said, as well as another officer whom the department did not recommend firing.
The Police Board will make a final decision on the officers’ termination.
“For these officers, these co-conspirators, to conspire with Officer Van Dyke’s statement of what occurred, which was clearly false, I’m hoping the police board will uphold these determinations and put them off the force”, says Ald.
Dashcam video released last year of the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald led to protests.
As NPR’s Cheryl Corley reports for our Newscast unit, the footage seemed to contradict police statements indicating “that MacDonald had lunged at officers”. In December, the US Justice Department announced it would launch an investigation into the Chicago Police Department. “Each officer will have their right to due process”.
Based on Van Dyke’s version of events, which was backed up by his colleagues at the scene, authorities had quickly deemed McDonald’s death a “justifiable homicide” within hours of the incident.
At Thursday’s hearing, attorneys said Chicago’s Office of Inspector General had submitted roughly 15,000 pages of investigative files linked to the shooting. Further, he supported Van Dyke’s claim saying McDonald “swung the knife toward the officers in an aggressive manner” and that he believed McDonald was “attempting to kill them”.
Johnson became the superintendent after Mayor Rahm Emanuel fired Superintendent Garry McCarthy because of the McDonald shooting video and his recommendation marks the single biggest decision he has made for a department long dogged by suspicions that it condones or covers up the brutality and misconduct of its officers. Officers can also challenge Police Board decisions in court.
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The controversy stirred by the video of Van Dyke shooting McDonald was compounded by the fact that numerous officers at the scene wrote reports that conflicted with the video, suggesting a collaborative effort to justify the shooting.
