Last year, 17-year old Laquan McDonald was murdered after receiving 16 shots by a Chicago police officer. The assassin was charged for first-degree murder, facing jail without bail until at least Monday.
Cook County prosecutors said on Tuesday that the official Van Dyke repeatedly fired 16 times against Laquan McDonald, after the young man had an encounter with the police officers on October 20, 2014.
Prosecutors established that Van Dyke, who was charged with first-degree murder, opened fire after leaving his patrol as the young walked away from him, and after 16 shots in 15 seconds, another officer told him to hold his fire, 13 of the 15 seconds of the shooting, McDonald was on the floor.
The trial judge, Donald Panarese Jr., ordered Van Dyke to be held without bail until at least Monday when he called on prosecutors to return with the dashcam video from a police squad car that captured the footage of the shooting against McDonald.
“I believe it is pertinent,” Panarese told attorneys Tuesday during the bail hearing.
Van Dyke showed no emotion as he was led from the courtroom in custody.
Van Dyke’s lawyer argued that his client feared for his life after the police responded to a call about a young man who was acting erratically. Another Chicago police union official also told reporters, shortly after the incident, that the young McDonalds contained PCP in his system at the time of his death, and that he was holding a four inches knife at the time he lambasted the official.
The charges against the officer were released after the city received an order from the court, which set a deadline on Wednesday for the delivery of the video. The city resisted releasing the video, waiting for the federals and state to analyse the incident. However, a judge in Cook County established the deadline after independent journalist Brandon Smith sued the city for violating state’s open records law.
Van Dyke, 37, turned himself in to the state’s attorney investigators at 7:41 a.m. Tuesday in their offices at the criminal courthouse, booking records show. As he arrived at court, Van Dyke kept his hands in his jeans pockets, looked straight ahead and did not answer questions from reporters as he briskly walked into the Leighton Criminal Court Building with his attorney.
Van Dyke could face a minimum of 20 years in prison since the autopsy of McDonalds showed that he was shot once on each side of his chest and suffered single bullet wounds in the scalp and neck, two in his back, seven in his arms, one in his right hand and two in his right leg.
Source: Chicago Tribune