Families with loved ones shot by Chicago police seek help

“Sixteen shots.” That’s how many times 17-year-old Laquan Mcdonald was shot by police officer Jason Van Dyke, who now faces murder charges. NBC 5’s Phil Rogers reports.

A federal civil rights investigation that will look at one of the nation’s largest police departments began in earnest Wednesday, with Chicago’s top officer saying Department of Justice agents were expected to sit down with top Chicago police brass.

While staff from the Justice’s Department’s civil rights division takes the leads the investigation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago will provide support.

Now, with the first-ever federal probe into the Chicago Police Department, many wonder what all of this, and the corrections, will cost, reports CBS 2’s Jeremy Ross.

In this Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2015, photo in Chicago, Janet Lindsey Ferguson holds a poster bearing a photograph of her teenage son, Rickey Childs, who was shot and killed by a Chicago police officer in 2012.

Emanuel today says he welcomes the fresh set of eyes.

McDonald was walking down a street and carrying a knife with a 3-inch blade when he was shot 16 times.

“One of the things that I’m trying to do in these conversations, but not just with the police, but convening community leaders and police leadership and police officers in that conversation I’m trying to create”, Emanuel said.

Van Dyke’s attorney, Daniel Herbert, said he had not heard about the indictment on Wednesday, but said “it would not come as a surprise”.

Smith represents two Chicago police officers who say they were blackballed and labeled “rats” for telling their superiors about two bad cops who were shaking down drug dealers.

The former White House aide tells reporters that his meeting is scheduled for Thursday, a day after federal officials were meeting with police department representatives in the civil rights investigation. Usually, Interim Police Superintendent John Escalante is there, too. Among those are Baltimore and Ferguson, Missouri, where the fatal police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in 2014 prompted months of protests. He described it as an off-the-record talk during which he said the union wanted to “help facilitate… the investigation”.