A senior member of the Chicago Police Department who served as interim superintendent during the upheaval over the fatal police shooting of black teenager Laquan McDonald is leaving to become police chief at Northeastern Illinois University.
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The controversy stirred by the disturbing 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.
In a statement Thursday, Superintendent Eddie Johnson said after reviewing the evidence, it shows the officers violated Rule 14, which prohibits “making a false report, written or oral”. The case has led to increased scrutiny and skepticism of the department, including a Justice Department investigation into Chicago police practices and the firing of the previous police superintendent past year as protests intensified.
As for the tenth office, the department said it “respectfully disagrees with the OIG’s recommendation for separation and feels that there is insufficient ecidence to prove those respective allegations”. The police department received criticism for taking over a year to release the video of Van Dyke shooting 17-year-old McDonald 16 times.
Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke is charged with first-degree murder. This is separate from the ongoing criminal case against Van Dyke and the federal probe into the McDonald shooting.
Johnson felt that evidence against one of the officers was not sufficient for recommending a termination and two others have retired since the shooting.
Superintendent Eddie Johnson called for their removal after a report concluded the officers made false statements. He and at least seven other officers gave their accounts, but that was contradicted by dashcam footage. Before horrifying video of the shooting was released, the City of Chicago spent ample time and money suppressing the footage.
This latest bombshell involving the eight police officers is just another part of the cover-up in McDonald’s death investigation. Each officer will have their right to due process.
Also Tuesday, CPD spokesman Anthony Guglielmi confirmed that the city’s inspector general had delivered a report on the McDonald shooting, but did not provide details on any conclusions or recommendations contained in the report.
“I don’t see how they can change back to the way things were before”, he said. “McDonald fell to the ground but continued to move and continued to grasp the knife, refusing to let go of it”.
“Our formal response to the inspector general was sent this morning”.
Those findings were harshly criticized when the video was released in November that showed McDonald didn’t threaten officers. Police found Laquan about two blocks from the trucking yard with a 3-inch knife in hand.
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A spokeswoman for Inspector General Joseph Ferguson declined to comment.
