Van Dyke has since been charged with first-degree murder.
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“I appreciate Supt. Johnson’s thoughtful review of the Inspector General’s report, and I fully support his decisions”. Fellow officers portrayed McDonald as waving a knife threateningly right before Van Dyke fired.
The video contradicts that claim.
Officer Jason Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder late past year after dashcam footage appeared to show Mr McDonald moving away from officers, contradicting police accounts.
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.
Over time, it has been determined that at least seven of the officers involved lied and now the axe is ready to fall on their career with the Chicago Police Department.
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. A judge’s order late a year ago finally compelled them to do so.
Chicago’s WGN-TV reports that two of the officers cited in the Inspector General’s report have since retired; Deputy Chief David McNaughton was one of them.
Although Supt. Johnson has stripped the eight officers of their police status, he doesn’t have the power to terminate them unilaterally, the New York Times reports.
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”.
Escalante applied to be the permanent superintendent but the job went to another high-ranking member of the department, Eddie Johnson.
The recommendation will now be sent to the Chicago Police Board for consideration as it is the board who decides the final punishment.
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. It showed McDonald veering away from police as he held a knife, not lunging toward officers as police had said.
Following that reasoning, Chicago police argued that the officers’ emails were not under the police department’s control.
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Those reports prompted police supervisors at the time to rule McDonald’s death was a justifiable homicide. That day, Van Dyke was charged with six counts of first degree murder and one count of official misconduct.
