U.S. launches probe into Chicago police

Alvarez said that the dashboard video of Ronald Johnson’s shooting was shown to the FBI, who said they were not going to participate in the investigation.

For almost an hour, McCarthy used a PowerPoint presentation to explain in detail where police cars were and where Johnson ran from officers.

Oppenheimer says he believes the gun was planted, saying it was a “rusty old gun”, and that the gun is not seen on the dashcam video. She says it is a semiautomatic pistol with 12 live rounds loaded. But Alvarez argued that Johnson could have easily turned around and fired at the pursuing officers.

High-profile killings of black men by mainly white police officers in USA cities have prompted a national debate and protests about the use of excessive force by police.

An attorney for Johnson’s mother said Hernandez fired five times within two seconds after Johnson got out of the auto. City officials also fought to suppress the video’s release.

The appearance of the video had flared up tensions between the police and the community in Chicago.

Chicago officials have been criticized for the handling of the 2014 fatal shooting of a black teenager by a white police officer, with some alleging a cover-up.

“We’ve never measured – as a city – measured up with the changes on a sustained basis to finally deal in whole cloth with that situation”, Emanuel said.

Laquan McDonald, 17, was shot and killed by Chicago cops in October 2014. Van Dyke has been charged with first-degree murder in connection to his death. The Independent Police Review Authority is investigating the shooting, she said. The dashboard camera video was only released after a protracted battle between a journalist and the city, which deflected his Freedom of Information Act requests.

The Chicago Tribune is reporting (http://trib.in/1XW2I4I ) that Turner’s legislation has support from co-sponsor Rep. David McSweeney, a Republican from Barrington Hills.

Several politicians had called for such an investigation after video of McDonald shooting was released late last month.

The push to make the Johnson shooting video public had been months in the making.

The new investigation will focus more broadly on Chicago officers’ use of deadly force, the system of oversight of police shootings, training and community engagement.

Lynch said the civil rights probe would be a separate investigation.

“It takes time to rebuild trust broken in a community”, he added. She says independent experts are the only ones who can answer questions about department practices and procedures.

Illinois Senator Dick Durbin said this investigation shouldn’t be viewed as a penalty, but rather as an opportunity.

Emanuel initially said a federal civil rights investigation of Chicago police tactics would be “misguided”. The inquiry would not target officers, but rather look at systemic issues inside the police department. Specifically, it will drill down on the department’s use of force to uncover any disparities in how it is applied with regard to race and ethnicity, how it is reported and investigated, and how officers are held accountable for that force.

Investigators will interview Chicago residents and defense attorneys, among others, and go through police records and even ride along with officers on neighborhood patrols.

The Justice Department has opened similar probes in Baltimore and Ferguson, Missouri, after the deaths of Freddie Gray and Michael Brown.

McDonald was shot 16 times by Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke. Emanuel and Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez have been accused of deliberately keeping the case out of the public eye to further their political agendas. He later reversed his position and said on Monday that he pledged Chicago’s “complete cooperation” with the federal investigation.

McCarthy also said Johnson ignored officers’ commands to stop and drop his weapon and had been in a physical altercation with at least one other officer before he was shot.

McDonald’s family, meanwhile, agreed to a $5 million settlement with the city of Chicago in April.