Chicago officials release more surveillance footage from

CHICAGO- Hundreds of pages of police documents released late Friday evening from the investigation of the police officer shooting death of Laquan McDonald shows that cops at the scene offered a starkly different picture of what led to fellow officer Jason Van Dyke shooting McDonald 16 times than what a dashcam video released last week depicts.

After initially rejecting the idea of a federal investigation into Chicago police practices, Mayor Rahm Emanuel now says he welcomes it. Reverend Jesse Jackson says there’s no way the city can investigate itself.

Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin said the protesters want the city to release all dashcam videos related to police shootings.

But an attorney for Johnson’s mother claims the footage shows Johnson did not have a gun and was running from police when he was shot.

“In defense of his life, Van Dyke backpedaled and fired his handgun at McDonald, to stop the attack”, according to the report from Van Dyke’s initial interview with investigators.

“I don’t know that Chicago needs the assistance of the Department of Justice when there’s all these other panels and agencies looking at the department”, said 14th Ward Alderman Ed Burke, a former police officer and longtime powerful City Council Finance Committee chairman.

Alvarez says she will not resign, despite calls for her to do so.

Lawyers for the news organization noted in the motion filed Thursday that recordings from only five police vehicles at the scene have been released, but an examination of those videos shows that a total of eight police vehicles appeared to be at the scene.

Messages left for the authority, Emanuel’s spokeswoman, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez’ spokeswoman and a police union weren’t immediately returned.

There’s often little consistency in US cities’ policies on how quickly to release videos of police officers shooting civilians under disputed circumstances, with many municipalities making decisions as they go or waiting to act until political pressure or court rulings force the issue. The family has filed lawsuits against the city. And they are demanding a federal investigation into the mayor’s handling of the police shooting.

At places in the video, officers also appear to move their mouths but there’s no corresponding sound on the suspect video, said Primeau, who also serves on the executive committee of the American Board of Recorded Evidence.

Several officers, including the one now charged with murder in Laquan McDonald’s death, reported that McDonald approached officers while armed with a knife.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has clarified his earlier remarks, saying the city would welcome U.S. Justice Department involvement in helping restore trust in the Chicago police. “As a result of this action, an officer discharged his weapon striking the offender”, according to the police’s initial release. “It’s not whether one movie is better than Batman Part II”, he said. They say more protests are planned for next week. A long wait often invites accusations that city leaders and police are seeking to hide some wrongdoing or endeavoring to cover something up.