Jason Van Dyke was convicted of murder Friday afternoon in the October 20, 2014 shooting death of 17-year-old black youth
A jury convicted Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke of 2nd degree murder Friday afternoon in the October 20, 2014 shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. Van Dyke, who is white, claimed he shot McDonald because the black youth was attacking him and his fellow officers with a knife. But cop car dash cam videos clearly showed McDonald some distance from the officers and backing away.
The shooting led to several days of rioting in the streets.
The jury also convicted Van Dyke of 16 counts of aggravated battery, one count for each bullet that struck McDonald.
Three of Van Dyke’s fellow officers have been indicted for lying on their police reports about the shooting in an effort to back up his version of what happened.
I cannot understand why Van Dyke’s lawyers did not go for a plea deal since the videos clearly showed the shooting was not justified. Maybe the prosecution refused to consider a deal because they had a slam-dunk case and a deal would have infuriated the black community.
1 comment:
It MAY be possible to justify shooting the guy with the knife walking away on a safety to others. Maybe. Shooting him some more when he is down is kind of hard to clean up. They intend to appeal, allegedly. He'd have better odds running for governor then pardoning himself.
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