Chicago officials on Friday released video from a nearby Burger King restaurant taken on the night a police officer fatally shot a black teen but it was missing the time period when the 2014 shooting occurred. NBC 5’s Carol Marin reports.
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According to the Chicago police, an independent police body conducts all investigations of officer-involved shootings.
Van Dyke told investigators that McDonald was “swinging the knife in an aggressive, exaggerated manner” and raising the weapon above his shoulder from about 10 to 15 feet away, according to the reports.
“In defense of his life, Van Dyke backpedaled and fired his handgun at McDonald, to stop the attack”, one document reads, according to the Associated Press (AP).
Van Dyke has been charged with murder.
Chicago officials have released police reports in the shooting death of a black teenager by a white police officer revealing a narrative that contradicts what video footage depicts.
Chicago police reports on the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald last year offer a starkly different account from the dashcam video that triggered protests in the city.
There’s often little commonality when it comes to cities’ policies on how quickly they release video of police officers who shot civilians under disputed circumstances.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel told the media Thursday that the city would drop its fight against the release of the video, and make it available sometime next week.
“If the criminal investigation concludes that any officer participated in any wrongdoing, we will take swift action”, he said in an emailed statement.
Meanwhile, Emanuel was accused Friday of “concealing evidence” and conspiring to cover up the McDonald shooting video until he was safely re-elected by community activists who demanded the mayor’s resignation and prosecution. It used the same argument in the McDonald case before a judge ordered the video’s release; Van Dyke was charged with murder the same day the video was made public.
Messages left for Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s spokeswoman, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez’ spokeswoman and a police union weren’t immediately returned.
There’s no audio in any of the videos but a conversation between police officers reviewing the Dunkin’ Donuts footage was captured on the store’s surveillance video.
Another contradiction is whether McDonald’s knife was folded when officers recovered it at the scene.
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His mother, Dorothy Holmes, says the dashcam footage of the shooting proves her son was slain, and is pushing for the video’s release to the public. Sanders says: “No one should be shielded by power or position”. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has called for an overall federal probe of police department practices, which Democratic presidential candidates to local Illinois politicians have echoed.
