Michael Oppenheimer and Dorothy Holmes speak to reporters at a news conference surrounding her son’s shooting death by Chicago Police.
Advertisement
Johnson’s relatives have pressed Chicago officials for squad auto video of the shooting and filed lawsuits. She said federal officials would be investigating “constitutional violations” in one of the nation’s largest police departments.
But such assurances are likely to be met with skepticism in a city that’s been plagued for years by a string of incidents of apparent police abuse followed by promises of reform.
More than 51% of likely voters said Emanuel should resign, while 29% said he should not step down, according to the poll commissioned by The Insider, a newsletter published by Illinois Observer.
“It is clear to me when you look at Laquan McDonald and other experiences – and they go way back in history -…, then none of the things we’ve done in the past have measured up to the scope, the scale and consequences of what needs to be done”, Emanuel said.
US authorities would look at the department’s use of force, including deadly force, among other issues, US Attorney General Loretta Lynch told a news briefing. This was the first time a Chicago police officer was charged with first-degree murder for an on-duty shooting in almost 35 years. “And when suspicion and hostility is allowed to fester, it can erupt into unrest”.
The video was held from the public for more than a year because releasing it risked prejudicing a federal and state’s attorney investigation, Emanuel explained amid the backlash. He indicated repeatedly on Monday that he now welcomed the federal intervention. They say the younger Coleman was mentally ill and should have been taken to a hospital, not jail. “We not only accept it, we need it”.
Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez said there would be no charges against Officer George Hernandez in the shooting of 25-year-old Ronald Johnson, whom authorities say pointed a gun at police before he was killed on October 12, 2014.
Alvarez and Assistant State’s Attorney Lynn McCarthy spent more than 30 minutes detailing evidence before showing the dashcam video, which similarly to the McDonald case has no audio.
Alexa Van Brunt, attorney at the McArthur Justice Center and clinical professor of law at Northwestern University, has litigated on behalf of victims of violence in past Chicago police misconduct cases. Johnson is not on screen when he was struck by two bullets.
Emanuel said he viewed the dash-cam video of Johnson’s shooting today. Prosecutors said Monday that a loaded weapon was found in his hand after he was killed.
Another officer had tried to arrest Johnson, but he had pulled away, knocking the officer over, before running off, Alvarez said.
Johnson was leaving a party near Washington Park on the city’s South Side when the auto he was a passenger in was shot at multiple times but an unknown gunman, Alvarez said.
A spokesperson for Duckworth did not respond to request for comment about whether Emanuel made a mistake by not releasing the video earlier and the ongoing calls for the mayor’s resignation. “That’s why independent investigations are so crucial in these cases”, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a statement Monday. The city released several police reports this past weekend, and there were five officers that kind of all gave the same narrative about how Laquan McDonald was attacking officers, and that when he was shot and down on the ground, how he was still trying to get up and trying to attack officers.
“I do not see how the manner in which Mr. Coleman was physically treated could possibly be acceptable”, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in statement Monday night, as he now pretends to care about police brutality in Chicago. Jackson said he hoped that the investigation would focus not only on the police department, but on Emanuel’s office and the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office, which he and others have criticized for taking so long to bring charges against Van Dyke.
Advertisement
“You’re never going to have a flawless police department – people are going to make mistakes”.
