Hearing For Chicago Police Officer

Earlier this week, Van Dyke was indicted on six murder counts and one count of official misconduct for the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.

A throng of news cameras and angry screams greeted Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke Friday after he appeared for a brief court hearing at the Leighton Criminal Courts building.

And the outcries against Van Dyke continued Friday.

Protests and national scrutiny followed last month’s release of the graphic video that shows McDonald run down the middle of Pulaski Road near 41st Street before Van Dyke shoots the African-American teenager 16 times.

Van Dyke was initially charged with murder by the county prosecutor on November 24, becoming the first Chicago officer to be charged with murder in an on-duty killing in more than three decades.

Herbert said he wants a county “outside the reach” of the mayor’s comments.

Van Dyke, 37, was released from the Cook County Jail on November 30 after posting a $150,000 bond, 10 percent of a $1.5 million bail. At least five police officers at the scene backed up Van Dyke in official police statements following the shooting. The judge scheduled his arraignment for December 29.

“Anything else?” the judge asked before calling the next case.

Several people shouted profanities and pounded on the black pickup truck before it pulled away with officer Jason Van Dyke inside. Van Dyke told investigators that McDonald was moving toward him when he started firing.

Rev. Michael Pfleger, the activist pastor of St. Sabina Church, said Thursday that he and about 15 others were given copies in a meeting held Wednesday with attorneys from the department’s civil rights division, and are spreading the word, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting. Van Dyke had been placed on paid desk duty after the shooting past year.

And there could soon be a request for a change of venue with defense attorney Dan Herbert citing words from Mayor Rahm Emanuel… “He has essentially told everyone in the public, in the City Council, that my client actually murdered Mr. McDonald, that he’s a bad apple”.

Marvin Hunter, McDonald’s great uncle, said following the hearing that the teen’s family believes it “can’t get a fair trial” in Cook County.

Fox 32 writes former Deputy Chief of Patrol Dave McNaughton – the highest ranking officer on duty the night of October 20, 2014 – was recently promoted to Deputy Chief of Support Services, while Officer Eugene Roy, who was the “Detectives Commander of the Area handling the investigation”, has been promoted to Chief of Detectives. At the federal level, a probe of Chicago police patterns and practices has been launched. Glenn Evans and detective Dante Servin were acquitted in separate bench trials at the Leighton courthouse.