After a prolonged legal battle, Chicago police released a video of one of their officers, Jason Van Dyke, shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times Wednesday.
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Alvarez said the deadline moved up the timing of her announcement but did not dictate her decision to charge the officer with first-degree murder.
In the police dashcam video, dated October 20, 2014, McDonald is seen walking down the middle of a street with officers both behind and beside him.
A prosecutor said in court Tuesday that the video, which has no audio, shows that Van Dyke fired all 16 shots in under 15 seconds, and that more than a dozen bullets hit McDonald after he was already on the ground. It is also cold-blooded murder. After its release, Emanuel went to a tree-lighting ceremony in Millennium Park, speaking of “the spirit of togetherness and peace” as protests amassed on the streets nearby.
Meanwhile in Minneapolis, police Tuesday arrested two men for allegedly shooting and wounding five people near a Black Lives Matter protest outside a police station.
This incident in Chicago occurred when the nation was troubled by alleged police brutality.
“Anyone who is there to uphold the law can not act as though they are above the law”, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said at a news conference late Tuesday afternoon.
McDonald appears to be standing 10 feet or more away from the officers, and not lunging at officers with a knife as claimed by Van Dyke.
In the video, McDonald is carrying with a small knife and walking away from officers, Alvarez said.
Under court order, the City of Chicago has just released this controversial and highly graphic video showing the death of a 17-year old by a police officer. “But I want to echo the comments of the McDonald family, they don’t want violence in Laquan’s name. But his actions are in no way a reflection of the dedication and professionalism that our police officers exemplify every day and that our residents expect throughout our city”.
The city approved a $5 million settlement for the McDonald family earlier this year.
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Demonstrators were angry that it took a year for police and prosecutors to file charges against Van Dyke. The footage shows the young man then being shot, spinning on the spot. falling to the floor and then the officer continuing to shoot into the teenager’s body.
