Just when you thought the story of the shooting of Laquan McDonald couldn’t get more sordid, it did over the weekend. Chicago officials released the full incident report from McDonald’s death in October 2014. It turns out that report differed so dramatically from the now-famous dashboard video that it can only be described as a total fabrication.
As we know by now, McDonald was just walking down the street with a knife in his hand when Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke emptied his pistol into him. McDonald was ultimately hit 16 times, even though he was on the ground for 13 seconds. But the incident report tells a different story. Van Dyke told detective David Marsch that McDonald was walking around waving his knife “in an aggressive, exaggerated manner.” Van Dyke claimed that McDonald began advancing on him even as he yelled, “Drop the knife!”
In Van Dyke’s version of events, McDonald got within 10 to 15 feet of Van Dyke and raised his knife to a combat position. Van Dyke then claimed that he then backpedaled, then opened fire in order to protect his own life. In truth, Van Dyke was the one advancing on McDonald as he fired. Van Dyke then claimed that McDonald tried to get up while continuing to point the knife, leaving Van Dyke with no option but to empty his pistol into him. As we know by now, the video shows Van Dyke kept firing even though McDonald was still on the ground. The only times McDonald moved were when he twitched as the bullets struck him.
By way of comparison, watch the dashcam video.
I’m no lawyer, but it doesn’t take a lawyer to know that if Van Dyke peddles this story under oath, he’d not only get torn to shreds on cross-examination, but get charges of perjury tacked on to the murder charge he already faces. How can anyone look at this video and not conclude that this incident report is a complete work of fiction?
The frightening thing about this incident report is that it would have potentially allowed Van Dyke to get away with murder if not for this video. The closest parallel is to Michael Slager nearly getting away with saying that Walter Scott tried to take his Taser–only for it to emerge that he’d actually shot Scott in the back while he was running.
Van Dyke’s partner, Joseph Walsh, corroborated Van Dyke’s account, and claims he also ordered McDonald to drop the knife several times. While there’s no audio on the dashcam video, given that Van Dyke’s account is a complete lie, I have to take Walsh’s claims with a hefty helping of salt.
Eight other officers who were assigned to Van Dyke and Walsh’s beat were interviewed for the incident report. Mayor Rahm Emanuel and interim police superintendent John Escalante have been tight-lipped about what happened to those officers. Escalante, who was chief of detectives at the time of the shooting, said that he will institute a new review process for officer-involved shootings. Emanuel expressed concern with the “permissive culture” that enables this kind of dishonesty. Chicago is one of the few major cities where deliberately filing a false report usually isn’t a firing offense.
If I were Walsh or any other officer interviewed in that incident report, I’d have a lawyer on speed dial. And if the culture of dishonesty is really as pervasive as it seems in the Chicago Police Department, then it will take nothing less than a root-and-branch cleanup to fix it. That cleanup can only happen with a lengthy period of court supervision. After all, who knows how many shootings like this have taken place in Chicago that we don’t know about?
Moreover, Emanuel and Escalante need to show some leadership and ensure that anyone and everyone who lied on this incident report is at a minimum fired, and possibly charged with perjury. They also need to send a message that the same will happen to any other Chicago cop who even thinks about lying on an incident report again.
