The reports by various police officers who were at the scene of the shooting in the third-largest city in the US are compelling because their descriptions of what happened do not match police vehicle video footage.
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Not only was Laquan not waving a weapon, he had actually veered away from the police and posed no visible threat – before Van Dyke took it upon himself to empty his clip (shooting the victim 16 times), while a crowd of fellow officers watched but didn’t discharge their weapons.
Chicago has been roiled by street protests and political turmoil since the November 24 release of video that showed the officer shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times after he jogged away from police cars.
The reports written in shorthand refer to Van Dyke as VD and to McDonald as O, describing him as the “offender”, according to the Tribune.
Just hours before the dashcam video was released, prosecutors charged Van Dyke with first degree murder. Van Dyke and five other officers at the scene gave statements after the shooting in which they say McDonald, who was holding a knife, was moving toward Van Dyke when the officer fired, according to the newly-released documents.
“I think that there was a cover-up and people were trying to save their own skin”, said Chicago Alderman Howard B. Brookins Jr.
The release of the reports comes amid mounting questions about the Chicago Police Department’s handling of the incident, while activists allege the police and city officials engaged in active efforts to cover it up. In an attempt to quell unrest over the video, Emanuel dismissed his police chief shortly after the video’s release.
The mayor has faced allegations that the video was withheld from the public because of the contentious mayoral election that forced a run-off last spring, and the widespread belief that a settlement with the McDonald family was part of a coverup.
“When a county judge ordered the city to make it public last week, more than a year had passed since the shooting, and public confidence in the police, prosecutors and the mayor’s office had been exhausted”.
Messages left for the authority, Emanuel’s spokeswoman, a spokeswoman for the Cook County state’s attorney, Anita Alvarez, and a police union weren’t immediately returned. One reason, said former IPRA investigator Lorenzo Davis, is because the agency relies heavily on reports from CPD detectives.
“If the criminal investigation concludes that any officer participated in any wrongdoing, we will take swift action”, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement.
In this October 20, 2014 frame from dash-cam video provided by the Chicago Police Department, Laquan McDonald, right, walks down the street moments before being shot by officer Jason Van Dyke in Chicago.
Van Dyke also told investigators that McDonald “raised the knife across his chest and over his shoulder, pointing the knife” at him before he opened fire. He reiterated his call for “a full, thorough investigation with subpoena power” and says it’s time to escalate the protests.
One of the reports noted what it called McDonald’s “irrational behavior”, such as ignoring verbal directions, “growling” and making noises. A medical examiner’s report said the hallucinogen PCP was found in his system.
Now hundreds of pages of Chicago police reports obtained by the Chicago Tribune show that police may have lied other times about the killing. But, in another contradiction, one of the police reports said the recovered knife’s “blade was in the open position”.
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You can read the rest of the 395-page police report here.
