Official Police Report On Laquan McDonald Shooting Drastically Different From

The report found that Officer Jason Van Dyke and a number of other police officers consistently claimed that Laquan McDonald presented a threat, even while he was lying bleeding on the ground after having been shot a number of times.

Chicago authorities have not been able to explain why the footage released to the public, including from other squad cars on scene, doesn’t have audio when department technologies allow for it. Acting Superintendent John Escalante said Friday that he issued a reminder to all officers to check that equipment works each time they get into police cars. VD continued firing. O appeared to be attempting to get up, still holding knife.

The video did not show McDonald lunging toward officers as some of them claimed, although there appears to be a silver object in McDonald’s right hand.

This video, which garnered almost half a million views on social media, added further fuel to already simmering suspicions that police were covering something up, given Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder on November 24 – more than a year after the shooting.

Van Dyke may have been a 14-year veteran of the department, but no stranger to controversy.

In the newly released police reports, several officers including Van Dyke and his partner described McDonald as aggressively approaching officers while armed with a knife.

With this troubling record as a police officer, why was Van Dyke still on the force and why he continuing to be paid for 13 months after shooting Laquan? A copy of the bulletin was included in the report.

Chicago officials fought in court for months to keep the McDonald video from being released. The officers would have Fifth Amendment protection for anything they said during an internal investigation, but their initial police reports could be used in an obstruction of justice case against them, said Phil Turner, a former federal prosecutor in Chicago.

A Chicago police spokesman, Anthony Guglielmi, said the Independent Police Review Authority conducts all investigations of officer-involved shootings and the agency was given the case report and videos.

Those reports prompted police supervisors at the time to rule at the time that McDonald’s death was a justifiable homicide and within the bounds of the department’s use of force guidelines.

Johnson’s mother, Dorothy Holmes, says the dashcam footage of the shooting proves her son was slain, and is pushing for the video’s release to the public.

The city has released information – including the video – in dribs and drabs, prolonging the scandal around McDonald’s shooting.

Requests for comment to representatives for Emanuel, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez and the police review authority weren’t immediately returned. By now many of us have seen the disturbing video. He said he eventually kicked the knife away from McDonald and then told the dying teenager “Hang in there” as an ambulance was called. The reports also note the 911 call after the shooting and radio transmissions from the scene “were consistent with the statements of the police officers”. The teen was being chased by police after reports he was burglarizing cars and slashing tires.

Joseph McElligott was one of the first officers to respond to calls McDonald was breaking into vehicles in the area.

Officer Ricardo Viramontes said he saw McDonald “turned toward Van Dyke and his partner”.

The release of the footage, which doesn’t have sound, triggered protests and calls for public officials to resign, including Emanuel.