Supt. Eddie Johnson issued an e-mail on Thursday recommending the termination and suspending the officers of their police powers, the Chicago Tribune reported.
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The officers’ reports appeared to contradict what can be seen on the video.
Evidence shows the officers violated Rule 14, which prohibits “making a false report, written or oral”, Johnson said. “Two of the officers cited in the report have since retired”, spokesman Frank Giancamilli said in a statement.
The officer who shot McDonald 16 times, Jason Van Dyke, was charged with first-degree murder and is awaiting trial. However, a portion of the shooting was captured on video, which differed greatly from the accounts of the officers on the scene.
The jarring footage showed the teen veering away from officers when Van Dyke opened fire from close range and continued shooting after the teen had crumpled to the ground and was barely moving.
“Jason Van Dyke was enabled by at least 10 officers – and I would go as far as saying an entire culture of a code of silence that police, prosecutors and judges are complicit in”. He’s now awaiting trial. 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. He received the inspector general’s report this week.
Attorneys also said that although the CPD gathered several eyewitness accounts, they refused to hand them over when requested.
One high-ranking officer caught up in the scandal, Anthony Wojcik, retired in May.
For months, the mayor has been trying to get ahead of a federal civil rights investigation by crafting a new system of police accountability to restore public trust shattered by his handling of the Laquan McDonald shooting video. According to ABS, they quickly offered the McDonald family a $5 million settlement, even before they filed a lawsuit.
The shooting and attempted cover-up sparked national outrage across the country, as protesters demanded justice for McDonald and his family.
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Johnson became the superintendent after Mayor Rahm Emanuel fired Superintendent Garry McCarthy because of the McDonald shooting video and his recommendation marks the single biggest decision he has made for a department long dogged by suspicions that it condones or covers up the brutality and misconduct of its officers. That’s because an IL appellate court in 2013 raised the question of whether an email sent by a city council member was under a public body’s control if the council member was not acting as part of the public body while convened for business.
