Judge Orders Chicago Police To Release Graphic Video Of Officer Shooting Teen

While acknowledging that there are ongoing investigations by the USA attorney, the FBI and the Cook County state’s attorney into the shooting, he ruled the state FOIA law only permitted a Police Department to withhold such a video if the department itself was persisting with an investigation. They said later that the decision to release the footage of the October 2014 shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald was monumental for a city with a police department that has always been dogged by a reputation for brutality, particularly involving blacks.

A dash cam video showing a Chicago police officer shooting a 17-year-old African-American boy 16 times last year will have to be made public, a judge ruled Thursday. His family’s attorney said the video shows the teenager holding a small knife and walking away from officers when an officer unexpectedly opens fire, killing the teen with more than a dozen bullets, and continuing to fire as he lay lifeless on the ground.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel said the city would not file an appeal of Valderrama’s ruling and would release the video by Wednesday.

Attorney Matt Topic, web journalist Brandon Smith and activist William Calloway discuss Thursday’s ruling.

Attorneys for the department asked for a stay, which would delay enforcement of Thursday’s ruling until the Illinois Appellate Court had weighed in on the issue, but Valderrama denied the request, ordering Chicago police to deliver a copy of the video to Smith on or before November 25. The officer shot the teen after he fell to the ground, according to McDonald’s family.

“It appears that McCarthy is giving police officers a right to shoot and ask questions later in Chicago”, Hardiman said, naming several others killed by Chicago cops in recent years. ABC reports Attorney General Lisa Madigan, in a letter to police earlier this month demanding the video’s release, said those claims were “unsubstantiated” and wouldn’t deprive anyone of a fair trial since the independent Police Review Authority was conducting the investigation.

Van Dyke contends that McDonald – who was found to have the drug PCP in his bloodstream – was moving toward him and that he opened fire to protect himself.

In April, the City Council unanimously approved a $5 million settlement over the shooting. He noted that McDonald’s mother doesn’t want the video released, because she fears it could spark violence in her Chicago neighborhood similar to the riots that erupted in Baltimore and Ferguson, Missouri, after police-involved deaths of black residents. The city has resisted, saying that it should not be released until all investigations are completed.

Dan Herbert says in this “day and age” there’s the possibility that someone could try to harm Officer Jason Van Dyke because they don’t understand the context in which the shooting occurred. “There was a narrative put out there by the Chicago police, by the union initially, that a police officer had to shoot him in self defense…that he lunged at a police officer with a knife”.

Chicago Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Thursday evening he could offer no information on any preventative measures the police department might take in preparation for what some speculate could be a violent response in the streets of Chicago to the graphic images contained in the video.

The officer, who has not been officially identified, has not been charged with a crime.

The statement says the city will release the video by Wednesday as ordered. No other officer fired a shot, according to Patton.

“I don’t think the Emanuel administration is transparent”, Smith said.