Emanuel defends changes underway in Chicago

This is similar to probes into police departments in Baltimore and Ferguson, and like those investigations, it was motivated by the fatal shootings of black men by police.

Even though IPRA investigates all police shootings and complaints of excessive force, Fairley’s call for the city inspector general to investigate the police officers in the McDonald shooting is not unprecedented.

The Justice Department in the last six years has opened more than 20 investigations of police departments.

Alvarez said following the investigation she concluded that Hernandez’s actions were “reasonable and permissible” since Johnson resisted officers and was running toward a police vehicle and a city park while they believed he was armed. “And when suspicion and hostility is allowed to fester, it can erupt into unrest”. He said McDonald’s death can not be “just another incident”.

December 4: The city releases hundreds of pages of internal police documents, including reports from officers on the scene who stated that McDonald aggressively approached Van Dyke, in contrast to what can be seen on the dashcam video.

“As a result I do not consider this case to be closed or the investigation into what happened that night to be over”, Emanuel said. “This is what our Chicago police brethren deserve and what the city of Chicago citizens demand”.

Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez will discuss the investigation into the October 2014 shooting of Ronald Johnson – the same month as Mr. McDonald’s death.

She also, unusually, showed a video of an unrelated shooting incident to illustrate her point that an officer could be in fear for his life from a man running away; it showed an assailant shooting an officer over his shoulder.

Ronald Johnson was shot in the early hours of October 12, 2014 after he and a group of friends returned to the scene of a shooting in which their vehicle was damaged by several bullets.

Alvarez also said that a 9mm round consistent with cocking a gun was found in the back seat where Johnson had been seated.

Police allege that 25-year-old Johnson pointed a gun at officers before Hernandez shot him in the back.

The announcement comes almost two weeks after the city released the explosive video of a white Chicago police officer shooting a black teenager 16 times, killing him. The video does not include sound, which authorities have not explained.

Holmes filed a federal lawsuit against Chicago police shortly after her son’s death, and the defendants filed a motion to block the video’s release. The city’s early efforts to suppress its release coincided with Emanuel’s re-election campaign, when the mayor was seeking African-American votes in a tight race. Demonstrators demanded that Mayor Emanuel and Police Chief Garry McCarthy resign. But the calls for the mayor to resign – something he said he won’t do – have grown louder from protesters, including the voices of more than 200 people during a march Sunday. The fallout from the videos has led to the departure of the police superintendent, the creation of a task force to study police accountability, the replacement of the head of the city’s Independent Police Review Authority, a federal investigation into Chicago police practices, and a series of protests that continued Monday evening.

Prosecutors showed police vehicle dashboard video to reporters on Monday and played audiotapes of police radio communications and 911 emergency calls.

“Sharon brings the experience and independence to ensure that when an officer breaks the rules, they will be held accountable”, the mayor said in a statement, adding that “new leadership is required as we rededicate ourselves to dramatically improving our system of police accountability and rebuilding trust”.

“Chicago gangs and Chicago police think they can kill anybody in the community because they can – and it has to stop”, Coleman said.

“You’re never going to have a ideal police department – people are going to make mistakes”.

Oppenheimer also noted that one witness, a civilian known as “witness A”, who did speak to the State’s Attorney’s office, said in a sworn deposition that “the idea of a gun wasn’t really a thing until they (detectives) presented the idea to me, or the situation to me”. We thank the Justice Department for steps taken thus far and further urge the Department to lead an independent investigation into Johnson’s murder.