Chicago Releases Thousands Of Emails Related To Shooting

City officials released hundreds of emails Thursday related to a police video that was kept secret for more than a year after a white Chicago officer shot a black teenager 16 times.

In this October 20, 2014 frame from dash-cam video provided by Chicago Police Department, Laquan McDonald falls to the ground after being shot by officer Jason Van Dyke in Chicago.

In May, mayoral spokesman Adam Collins complained to colleagues that the Independent Police Review Authority’s did not follow his recommendation on how to respond to a TV station about McDonald.

A small group of protesters returned to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s house Thursday afternoon, repeating a call for Emanuel to resign in the wake of the latest police-involved shooting.

“Emanuel’s senior legal adviser, Stephen Patton, emailed Collins on December 9, 2014, saying he told his staff to inform him “immediately” when a lawsuit in the case was filed”. News storiesdisplayed here appear in our category for US Headlines and are licensed via a specific agreement between LongIsland.comand The Associated Press, the world’s oldest and largest news organization. But the video showed that the young man, although carrying a knife, was moving away from the officers when he was shot repeatedly.

The release of the video set off weeks of demonstrations, forced the resignation of Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy and has led to an ongoing wide-ranging civil rights investigation of the entire Chicago Police Department by the U.S. Department of Justice. “This is a deeply disturbing incident that demands a very deliberate and meticulous independent investigation”, Alvarez said.

Emanuel’s administration has been emerged in controversy after the release of dashcam footage of the shooting ignited weeks of protests.

John Escalante says his team will meet with the city’s Independent Police Review Authority to evaluate current training and make necessary changes.

While Emanuel was on vacation, Bettie Jones, 55, and Quintonio LeGrier, 19, were killed on December 26 by an officer responding to a call that LeGrier was threatening his father with a metal baseball bat, another situation that critics said police could have addressed with a Taser.

Van Dyke, who faces six first-degree murder counts, has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The city’s law department released the emails to reporters Thursday morning.

An email dating back to December 5, 2014, between former IPRA Chief Scott Ando to Janey Rountree, a top aide to the mayor on public safety issues, included a list of three pending cases by the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Justice Department, two of which resulted in criminal charges.