The Chicago Tribune reports that recently the city’s Office of the Inspector General recommended 10 officers be fired in connection to McDonald’s death.
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Chicago Police Superintendent announced Thursday that he will recommend the firing of seven Chicago officers accused of filing false reports in connection to the fatal shooting of teenager Laquan McDonald in October 2014.
In June, authorities in the crime-wracked city, hoping to fix relations, released a trove of videos, audio recordings and materials related to active investigations of police conduct.
In the video, however, McDonald can clearly be seen moving away from the responding officers as Van Dyke steps out of his squad vehicle and, seconds later, opens fire.
Last month, Cook County Judge LeRoy Martin Jr. appointed Patricia Brown Holmes, a former Cook County judge and assistant state’s attorney, to serve as a special prosecutor tasked with investigating the conduct of the officers at the scene of the shooting, including the 10 officers cited by the OIG report.
Mr Van Dyke claimed that he fired his gun in self-defense as McDonald lunged towards him, and after McDonald had been shot to the ground, he tried to rise from the pavement, pointing a knife, and was sacked at again.
The superintendent’s announcement comes after the city’s Inspector General Joseph Ferguson delivered a report on the shooting, recommending the termination of eight officers, according to Anthony Guglielmi, a police spokesman.
Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke is charged with first-degree murder. Video released a year after McDonald’s death showed he wasn’t threatening Van Dyke before the officer shot him 16 times at close range.
Laquan McDonald was shot 16 times by Chicago police officer Jason van Dyke.
Another wrote that, Van Dyke “in defense of his life … backpedaled and fired his handgun at McDonald”. Video seemed to belie those accounts.
Van Dyke and at least five other officers reported that McDonald – who was wielding a knife – moved threateningly toward officers, even though the video shows he was walking away before the shooting. Johnson stripped seven of the officers of police powers, but the review board must okay their ouster. Johnson said one of the officers did not deserve to be fired because there was insufficient evidence.
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Mr Johnson did not release the names of the officers he is calling to fire, but numerous officers were at the scene of the shooting. “No one stands on the side of policing right now”.
