Chicago police reports differ dramatically from video of teenager

The Rev. Jesse Jackson on Saturday called for the arrest of some police officers mentioned in a police report giving statements about the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald that appear to be at odds with video of the incident.

Van Dyke had been on site less than 30 seconds, and out of his vehicle for six seconds, when he started shooting, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez has said. In their notes, the cops said Officer Jason Van Dyke – who has since been charged with first-degree murder – was under attack and feared for his life when he opened fire.

Chicago officials fought in court for months to keep the McDonald shooting video from being released publicly, before deciding in November not to fight a judge’s order.

He also said that he “backpedaled and fired his handgun at McDonald”, though the video shows him advancing on McDonald.

At least five other officers on the scene that night corroborated a version of events similar to the one Officer Van Dyke, now charged with murder in the shooting, gave his supervisors: that Mr. McDonald was aggressively swinging his knife and was moving toward the police, giving Officer Van Dyke no choice but to start shooting.

That video, which prompted the city to pay McDonald’s family $5 million without their filing a wrongful death lawsuit, shows McDonald briskly walking down the middle of the street when Van Dyke fired from the teenager’s left side. A day after the shooting, Van Dyke recalled a bulletin from the department that warned about knives that also shoot bullets. VD continued firing. O appeared to be attempting to get up, still holding knife.

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

Emanuel has said he didn’t see the video until it was released publicly.

Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the city’s Independent Police Review Authority, not the police department, conducts investigations of officer-involved shootings, and the agency was given all evidence from the scene. PCP, a hallucinogenic drug, was found in McDonald’s system, according to Alvarez and the medical examiner’s report that was among the documents.

With the video as a backdrop, the reports offer a way to examine what Van Dyke and his colleagues say happened.

Furthermore, the primary detective assigned to review the case, David March, wrote that he watched two dashcam videos and determined they were “consistent with the accounts of all the witnesses”. Mayor Rahm Emanuel has fired the department’s superintendent in response to the scandal.

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.

One of the reports noted what it called McDonald’s “irrational behavior”, such as ignoring verbal directions, “growling” and making noises. But one of the police reports said the knife’s “blade was in the open position”. Some reports are in police shorthand.

According to the Tribune, federal prosecutors are investigating the officers who made statements as well as the officers who prepared the reports of the statements.

The police reports are blacked out in places, with those redactions covering signatures, a reporter’s cell phone number, the serial number of the officer’s gun and McDonald’s address.