VIDEO: Chicago Officer Charged With First-Degree Murder in Death of Black Teenager (Updated)
A judge in Cook County, Ill., charged Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke with first-degree murder Tuesday in the shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald last year. Updated
A video still of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. (CBS Chicago)
A video still of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. (CBS Chicago)
Update: The video from the scene of the shooting has been released.
The judge’s call in the case follows last week’s court order to release video footage from the Oct. 20, 2014, incident, in which the Caucasian officer shot the African-American teen 16 times, as The New York Times relayed later Tuesday afternoon:
The charges against Officer Jason Van Dyke, 37, come more than a year after the shooting, but only days after a judge ordered Chicago officials to release the video from the shooting, captured by a dashboard camera in a police car. The judge had ruled that the video, described by some who have seen it as graphic and deeply disturbing, must be released by Wednesday.
[…] A lawyer for Mr. McDonald’s family says the video shows Mr. McDonald, who the authorities say had a knife, moving away from Officer Van Dyke. In April, the city agreed to pay $5 million to the family even before a suit had formally been filed in the case.
For months, the city had refused to release the video. On Thursday, city officials reversed course after Franklin Valderrama, a Cook County judge, ordered it released. Announcing that the city would not appeal the case after being expected to, Mayor Rahm Emanuel strongly condemned the officer’s actions. Officer Van Dyke “took the law into his own hands,” the mayor said after charges were filed, “and now it’s up to the justice system to hold him accountable.”
Watch CBS Chicago’s local coverage of the story below:
–Posted by Kasia Anderson
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