Detective George Hernandez shot and killed Ronald Johnson, a father of five who lived on the city’s South Side, on Oct 12, 2014. Alvarez said in her press conference that the footage of Johnson’s death had been shown to the FBI, which she said chose not to participate in the investigation. It was the second time in a month that authorities released a video of a police officer shooting and killing a black man after pressure from family members, lawyers, journalists and activists.
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Also, as we see a lot from Chicago, the dash cam video they first released contained no audio, which is expected from the police department that once had the honor of enforcing the nation’s toughest eavesdropping law, where citizens were not allowed to record cops in public without their consent.
The decision not to charge Johnson came just hours after the U.S. Justice Department announced it would conduct a civil rights investigation of the Chicago Police Department and its policies and practices regarding the use of force. He has also asked for a special prosecutor to be appointed to the case. Hernandez can be seen in the video firing at Johnson as he fled from the responding officers. “As a result of this action, an officer discharged his weapon striking the offender”, said the police department.
Amid allegations from protesters about a cover-up of the McDonald case, Alvarez said she has nothing to hide.
Oppenheimer said the family has already viewed the dashcam video and noted there is no audio on it – even though the videos typically have sound.
Assistant state’s attorney Lynn McCarthy showed an image enhanced by an Federal Bureau of Investigation computer forensics laboratory which she said showed that Johnson was carrying a gun in his right hand when he was shot by Hernandez.
The officer who shot and killed Ronald “Ronnieman” Johnson the week before Laquan McDonald was shot 16 times will not be charged criminally for the shooting.
Prosecutors slowed the video down to show what appears to be a gun in the 25-year-old man’s hand. The driver told investigators that he heard the cocking of a gun behind him, where Johnson had been sitting, Alvarez said.
Johnson and three friends were leaving a party at 53rd Street and King Drive when their vehicle was hit. At the same time, officers observed Ronald Johnson at the scene…
Though Alvarez said there was not enough evidence to charge Hernandez, she seemed exasperated by police and Chicago’s Independent Police Review Authority, which investigates shootings by police.
Johnson’s mother, Dorothy Holmes, has sued the city and Officer Hernandez, claiming the dashboard camera video shows Johnson never pointed a weapon at police, and was not an imminent threat to officers when he was shot on October 12, 2014.
Van Dyke was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.
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Attorneys for Johnson’s family have accused the city and the police force of covering up what happened in the shooting, insisting that Johnson was unarmed when he was shot.
