Site of Laquan McDonald Shooting, 4100 S Pulaski Road

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On October 20, 2014 Officer Jason Van Dyke, a 14 year veteran of the Chicago Police Department, shot 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times near 41st Street and Pulaski Road. McDonald was later pronounced dead at Mount Sinai Hospital.

“Attorneys for the estate of Laquan McDonald entered into negotiations with the City of Chicago to settle claims arising out of his death. The Chicago City Council approved a $5 million settlement to McDonald's family on April 15, 2015, although the family had not yet filed a wrongful-death lawsuit. Emails from the mayor's office surrounding the case later revealed the settlement deal was finalized the day after the Mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, secured his second term by a run-off election. Part of the settlement agreement required that the video be sealed until investigations were completed, which could have delayed the release of the video for years.”

On November 24, 2015, Officer Jason Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder. The same day, the dashcam video of the shooting was finally released after a journalist filed a Freedom of Information Act request that was denied three times. “ ‘An analysis of the video establishe[d] that 14 to 15 seconds passed from the time defendant fired his first shot to clear visual evidence of a final shot. For approximately 13 of those seconds, McDonald is lying on the ground.’—People of the State of Illinois vs. Jason Van Dyke, proffer”

The very next day, a series of protests began spear-headed by the vocal Black Lives Matter Movement (BLM). Subsequent to the release of the video footage, it came to light that there had been awareness and deliberate non-disclosure of video evidence that contradicted the claims of officers that McDonald had been violent and aggressive.

Jason Van Dyke was indicted on six counts of first-degree murder and one count of official misconduct. In addition to these indictments, Van Dyke was charged with 16 counts of aggravated battery — one for each shot fired at Laquan McDonald — in a new indictment on March 23, 2017. Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson also filed administrative charges seeking to fire five officers involved in the shooting and its cover-up: Officers Jason Van Dyke, Janet Mondragon, Daphne Sebastian and Ricardo Viramontes, as well as Sgt. Stephen Franko. The cases must go before the Chicago Police Board and officers can challenge their firings.

“Jury selection began on Sept. 5, 2018. Prosecutors took four days to present their case, then Van Dyke’s lawyers spent about a week-and-a-half calling their witnesses. It took jurors about eight hours of deliberation and on Oct. 5, 2018, Van Dyke was found guilty of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery with a firearm. He was found not guilty of the official misconduct charge. On Jan. 18, 2019, he was sentenced to nearly seven years in prison. Van Dyke was taken into custody after the verdict was read and spent about three months in a county jail. He was sentenced to 81 months in prison for second-degree murder, but under Illinois law, he can serve as little as half that term.”

“At the request of Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, the United States Department of Justice initiated a civil rights investigation into McDonald's death and the activities of the Chicago Police Department. It released its report in January 2017, describing the police as having a culture of "excessive violence," especially against minority suspects, and of having poor training and supervision. DOJ and city officials signed a consent decree for a plan for improvement to be overseen by the courts. Three Chicago police officers tried for allegedly attempting to cover up events related to the shooting were found not guilty by the Cook County Circuit Court on January 17, 2019.”

sources:

1. "Murder of Laquan McDonald." Wikipedia. April 26, 2018. Accessed April 29, 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Laquan_McDonald.

2. AJ. "3 Chicago Cops Were Indicted on Conspiracy Charges in Relation to the Cover-up of Laquan McDonald's Murder. A Recap: Https://t.co/OJBzofLowb." Twitter. June 27, 2017. Accessed April 26, 2018. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/06/chicago-officers-indicted-laquan-mcdonald-shooting-170628080052345.html.

3. Husain, Nausheen. "Laquan McDonald Timeline: The Shooting, the Video and the Fallout." Chicagotribune.com. October 20, 2017. Accessed April 26, 2018. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/laquanmcdonald/ct-graphics-laquan-mcdonald-officers-fired-timeline-htmlstory.html.