Chicago Officials Release Video Of Ronald Johnson Shooting, Officer Won’t Face

Prosecutors told reporters Monday that the officer, George Hernandez, had reason to believe Johnson was carrying a gun and posed a threat to him and other officers in the area when he shot the 25-year-old black man as he fled from police in October 2014.

The investigation will be conducted by the Special Litigation Section of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “And when suspicion and hostility is allowed to fester, it can erupt into unrest”. McDonald, 17, was gunned down by officers, and in his case, Officer Jason Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder.

The U.S. Department of Justice is opening a civil rights investigation into the Chicago Police Department’s pattern and practices, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said on Monday.

Duckworth issued a carefully worded statement on Facebook last month after the video was released, but did not take a position on how the mayor’s office handled the issue.

“The team will meet with a broad cross section of community members, city officials, and law enforcement command staff and officers to both explain our process and to hear from anyone who wishes to share information relevant to this investigation”, said Lynch, who is America’s first Black woman attorney general. 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.

Emanuel introduced a newly appointed leader of the city’s Independent Police Review Authority, which investigates police shootings.

“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.

Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, criticized for not filing charges earlier in the McDonald case, says she will speak Monday morning about the killing of another young black man by city police.

In a statement he said: “I do not see how the manner in which Mr. Coleman was physically treated could possibly be acceptable…something is wrong here – either the actions of the officers who dragged Mr. Coleman, or the policies of the department”. Oppenheimer also described the state attorney’s press conference, which used blown-up visuals-that Alvarez herself described as “grainy, dark (and) blurry”-to prove their allegations, as a “27-minute infomercial”. He and several other officers exited the vehicle, and Mr. Hernandez fired at Mr. Johnson as he ran away. Prosecutors say a loaded weapon was found in his hand after he was killed.

Alvarez focused on one still frame of the video, in which she said it appears Johnson is holding a gun, although Johnson’s family’s lawyer Michael Oppenheimer maintained that there is no gun visible in the video.

“We are in the digital age, and we didn’t have videos like this 15 or 20 years ago and now we do”, Alvarez said. “I have pretty much opened the door here”.

She said Tuesday that problems in Chicago go beyond the police department.

Among the general questions the investigation will seek to answer: Are abuses widespread or are they isolated to a few rogue officers? The officer continues shooting after McDonald crumples to the ground and is barely moving.

The City Council approved the payment to the McDonald family on the same day it signed off on another settlement that drew far more attention – the creation of a $5.5 million reparations fund for dozens of torture victims connected to former Chicago police Cmdr.

Emanuel said his “very concern” is that the three entities charged with punishing police for misconduct aren’t getting the job done and that’s why he’s instructed a police accountability task force to find ways to fix the broken system. Independent experts could also be brought in, according to the Department of Justice website.