While staff from the Justice’s Department’s civil rights division takes the leads the investigation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago will provide support.
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The Chicago Tribune reports that Van Dyke was indicted by a grand jury on six counts of first-degree murder and one count of official misconduct.
The indictment alleges that Van Dyke acted “without legal justification” in the McDonald shooting.
Van Dyke attorney Daniel Herbert did not return a phone call Wednesday night from The Associated Press.
Police had initially said Van Dyke had fired in self-defense, but the video shows McDonald veering away from the officer.
Hundreds of protesters marched through the streets near Chicago’s City Hall, blocking traffic and chanting, “16 shots and a cover-up” and “Shut it down”.
Controversy over the Chicago Police Department and the shooting of Laquan McDonald has spilled over into what would normally be a moment to celebrate for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. On Nov. 24, Van Dyke was charged with one count of murder before a court ordered the city to release a dashboard camera video of the October 2014 shooting of Laquan McDonald.
Emanuel regularly visits the charter school, which says it sends all of its black male graduates to college.
Over coming months, investigators will talk to everyone from beat cops to city leaders, which is likely to include Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
Last week, Emanuel apologized for the 2014 shooting during a special City Council meeting that he called to discuss a police abuse scandal at the center of the biggest crisis of his administration, and promised “complete and total” reform to restore trust in the police.
Emanuel told reporters Wednesday he’s been meeting with officers in several districts over the last few days and sees officers’ dedication. Ferguson’s police department consists of about 50 officers, as compared with CPS’s 12,000.
A federal civil rights investigation that will look at one of the nation’s largest police departments began in earnest Wednesday, with Chicago’s top officer saying Department of Justice agents were expected to sit down with top Chicago police brass.
Mayor Emanuel confirmed that he will be in meetings with officials tomorrow as they kick off their investigation into the patterns and practices of the CPD. We’re told by sources that the investigation was somewhat of a DOJ 101 – getting to know you, laying out a procedure and timeline for how things will go down and what the police department and city will have to do to cooperate.
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The investigation will focus on the department’s use of force, Lynch said, particularly if there are racial, ethnic or other disparities in officers’ use of force, and its systems of accountability.
