Late Tuesday, the Chicago Police Department and the Cook County state’s attorney’s office released footage from a police car’s dashboard camera from last fall showing a Chicago police officer emptying his pistol into a black teenager even though the teen was on the ground. Largely on the strength of that video, the cop is now facing charges of first-degree murder.
Jason Van Dyke surrendered on Tuesday morning, just hours before the release of the dashboard video showing him pumping 16 bullets into the body of Laquan McDonald in October 2014. If convicted, the 15-year police veteran could face 20 years to life in prison. Cook County state’s attorney Anita Alvarez said that she had already decided to bring charges against Van Dyke several weeks ago. However, she wanted to wait for federal authorities to conclude their portion of the multi-agency investigation.
However, Alvarez had to move up the timetable of Van Dyke’s arrest after state district judge Franklin Valderrama ordered the release of the video showing McDonald’s death. It came from a camera mounted on the dashboard of one of several cruisers who responded to an incident on Chicago’s Southwest Side. Watch here.
McDonald had been seen breaking into trucks and stealing radios. He was walking down Pulaski Street with a knife in his hand, ignoring commands from officers to drop it. Less than 30 seconds after he and his partner rolled up on McDonald, Van Dyke opened fire.
While it’s debatable whether Van Dyke should have drawn his gun, there is no doubt that his actions after he did so were inexcusable. Van Dyke continued firing on McDonald for 15 seconds, even though McDonald was lying on the ground for all but two of those seconds. He was actually reloading when his partner told him to stop firing so he could disarm McDonald. An autopsy later revealed that McDonald was under the influence of PCP. The city later agreed to pay McDonald’s family $5 million in a settlement.
Much of the controversy over the case centered on how long it took to release the dashboard video. Freelance journalist Brandon Smith filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the video’s release in August. City officials balked at first, citing the ongoing federal investigation. However, Valderrama shot that argument down, saying that since the police department itself was not involved in the investigation, it could not cite the investigation as an exception to public records law.
Smith, who was unable to attend the news conference announcing the video’s release, had faced considerable criticism for pressing his case even though McDonald’s family had let it be known they didn’t want it released. The family feared it would be too painful to watch again.
I would agree with the family–if it hadn’t been so long since the shooting. One of Smith’s attorneys, Craig Futterman, told NPR’s “Morning Edition” that best practices call for such video to be released within 48 hours at the latest. Futterman said that given the long history of distrust between the police and Chicago’s black community, sitting on the video in the face of “demand after demand” for its release “is not honesty, and is not transparency.”
Some demonstrations took place on Tuesday night, but with few exceptions they were peaceful. Let’s hope that it stays that way–and that Van Dyke is sent to prison where he belongs.
