Chicago Police Face Investigation

Anita Alvarez, the county state’s attorney, cited “the totality of the evidence” when announcing she would not charge Officer George Hernandez in the death of 25-year-old Ronald Johnson III, who Hernandez shot in the back as he fled from officers. Johnson died after being transported from the scene, Alvarez said.

A attorney for Johnson’s family, who are suing the state, alleged Johnson did not have a gun and said the gun on the scene was planted by police. Alvarez added that Johnson’s DNA was found on the gun and that the weapon was linked to a 2013 shooting in the city. One officer is seen firing, with a number of muzzle flashes visible, but Johnson being hit is not visible because he is out of the frame. Alvarez’s office sent the squad auto video to an Federal Bureau of Investigation laboratory to establish visual proof that was gun was present before Johnson was shot.

The investigation comes after weeks of intense scrutiny surrounding the death of Laquan McDonald, a 17-year-old boy who was shot and killed by Chicago police eight days after Johnson’s death. Alvarez said there was “physical struggle” between a Chicago police officer and Johnson before the shooting, but that it was not captured on the dash cam video. An autopsy showed that the shoulder injury was fatal, having traveled through Johnson’s shoulder, severing his jugular vein before exiting through his eye socket. “Police officers are often forced to make split-second judgments in circumstances that are tense, uncertain and rapidly evolving about the amount of force that is necessary in any particular situation”.

Video of Ronald Johnson’s shooting was released by Alvarez’s office during a press conference explaining key details of the video on Monday.

Prosecutors showed reporters an image with a red-colored circle around Johnson’s hand, saying that forensic experts clarified images of a weapon.

This investigation comes after those opened against the Police departments of Ferguson, Misuri and Baltimore, Maryland, where other African Americans were victims of police shootings.

Tensions are high in the USA city after a video of a fatal police shooting of a black teenager was released.

After Alvarez and McCarthy gave their account, in a separate news conference attorney Michael Oppenheimer accused them of presenting an “infomercial” full of information, but none that conclusively demonstrated that Hernandez was justified in shooting Johnson. “That’s why independent investigations are so crucial in these cases”, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a statement Monday.

He also announced had replaced the head of the city’s Independent Police Review Authority, which reviews police misconduct allegations.

Chicago’s police force is one of the nation’s largest, with more than 12,000 officers.

“What we are looking is to see whether or not the police department as a systemic matter has engaged in constitutional violations of policing”, she said.

“The fact that you have three entities, and if people are not telling the truth, that they… believe there is a permissive culture that enables that, rather than hold them accountable, we have a problem because people don’t trust it”, Emanuel said.

Mr Emanuel ousted his handpicked police superintendent, Garry McCarthy, last week.

– In East Haven, Connecticut, federal investigators determined Latinos were subjected to more traffic stops, harsher treatment and more retaliation over discrimination complaints, a 2011 Justice Department report said.

The city of Chicago is bracing for more protests after prosecutors announced they would not seek criminal charges in the case of another officer involved shooting.

Federal police probes like the one undertaken in Chicago are nothing new to President Barack Obama’s administration.