The Chicago police officer charged in the fatal shooting of teenager Laquan McDonald has made a brief court appearance.
Advertisement
The release a year ago of official police reports that directly contradicted video evidence of McDonald’s shooting by a white police officer turned a spotlight on longstanding concerns about a “code of silence” in Chicago’s police force, in which officers stay quiet about or hide possible misconduct by colleagues.
McDonald was shot 16 times at close range – even after the teen collapsed from the first shot, the video of the shooting shows.
The Chicago Tribune reports that in legal filings Herbert asked prosecutors to specify how his client acted “without legal authority” when he shot McDonald. He did not name the seven officers. Johnson recommended that the board fire them.
Two of the ten officers originally recommended for termination have retired. State Attorney Anita Alvarez, who led the criminal investigation into Van Dyke, lost a hard fought reelection campaign after it was discovered her office waited 400 days before filing criminal charges against the accused officer.
But the video belies those accounts. He said their interpretation of what unfolded may have been accurate from their perspective, noting that perceptions can be affected in high-stress situations, like shootings. A task force assembled by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who weathered criticism for his handling of the crisis, concluded that police data “gives validity to the widely held belief the police have no regard for the sanctity of life when it comes to people of color”, prompting reforms to improve investigations and hold officers accountable.
In their account of the shooting, seven officers (who have remained unidentified in the news report) provided false statements about the events that day.
Video released past year shows Officer Jason Van Dyke shooting McDonald 16 times in 2014. 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”.
The Rev. Greg Livingston says seeking dismissals is right but should have happened sooner.
“The Department and its outside counsel have carefully reviewed the reports and supporting documents, videos, and other evidence”, the statement reads, “and will accept the [city’s inspector general’s] recommendation to submit seven of the officers to the Police Board for separation”.
Angelo said the seven officers must rightly wonder if the police board will listen to them defend their actions that night given months of protests against police in Chicago and other USA cities.
Van Dyke was charged with six counts of first-degree murder and is pleading not guilty to the charges. A video of the murder was released one year after the shooting, which showed the teenager – though holding a knife – was not a threat to Van Dyke, according to The Associated Press.
Advertisement
The officers’ reports appeared to contradict what can be seen on the video.
