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    Police Shooting Response -CJ 201 - Daniel Bond

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    Police Shooting Response -CJ 201 - Daniel Bond

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    Police Shooting Response -CJ 201 - Daniel Bond

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    Banana Fruit

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    1

    The Controversial Murder of Laquan McDonald

    Daniel Bond

    CJ 201: Law Enforcement in the U.S

    Dennis Hippart

    November 24, 2024


    2

    The Controversial Murder of Laquan McDonald

    At 9:45 p.m on October 14, 2014, Chicago police responded to a call of someone

    destroying property and carrying a knife. Accounts vary and the story was changed multiple

    times when they arrived, but one thing stays the same. 17-year-old Laquan McDonald was

    carrying a knife, and according to officer Jason Van Dyke, charged at them with the knife.

    The officer responded by shooting McDonald 16 times, resulting in McDonald to being

    escorted to the hospital, where he died at. A witness at the scene, Alma Benitez reported there

    were multiple officers, and that there was no reason to shoot the man (Police Shoot, Kill

    Knife-Wielding Teen on South Side, 2015). The autopsy report had confirmed that there were

    sixteen bullets in McDonald, nine of them hitting his back, as well as injuries from hitting the

    ground are reported (Means, 2014). The primary issue was the fact McDonald was on PCP

    (Means, 2014) at the time of the incident, the cover up surrounding the entire case, and the

    lies that were spread to the public before the court case.

    Originally, a spokesperson for the city Corporation Counsel, Stephen Patton, stated

    that the officers had found McDonald who ignored orders to drop the knife and attacked the

    officer’s vehicle multiple times (Chicago Tribute, 2015). However, this was later proven

    false in the dashcam footage that was released a year after the shooting. Despite there being

    five cars on scene, only one video was released to the public. The officers also stated there

    was nobody on call with a taser when they first found McDonald, adding along with only

    having one dash camera being operatable at the time, doesn’t help with the officer’s case.

    When looking at the dash cam footage, McDonald was visibly walking away from the vehicle

    when Officer Van Dyke started firing shots and continued so after the teen had fallen. After

    McDonald was on the ground, no officer went to the teen to give him aid, instead leaving him

    on the ground. This case brought up the issue of officers not properly maintaining their body

    and dash cameras, at times having them either off or simply not working (Muchow, et.

    al,2022). The trial court had attempted to not have any media released about the case until
    3

    after the trial was over for Officer Van Dyke to have a fair trial. Yet, the victim’s toxicology

    reports had been released and the information of the family’s settlement from the state of

    Illinois’ to not have the footage released. The only reason the dash-cam footage as releases

    was due to Brandon Smith, a freelance media journalist, filed a lawsuit under the Illinois

    Freedom of Information Act. The dash-cam footage caused a spark of protestors demanding

    for police reform and justice for McDonald. A proffer in the case against Officer Van Dyke

    states, “An analysis of the video establishes that 14 to 15 seconds passed from the time

    defendant fired his first shot to clear visual evidence of a final shot. For approximately 13 of

    those seconds, McDonald is lying on the ground” (People v. Van Dyke). Media outlets were

    not allowed to report on the case in-depth, minus the Chicago Tribune, who had released

    email between state officials which were quickly deleted after the article was released.

    Multiple media outlets also falsely reported that the victim’s family didn’t want to press

    charges, while McDonald’s grandmother, Tracey Hunter, goes on the record stating that the

    office never contacted the family to charge Officer Van Dyke. Officer Van Dyke as charged

    for first-degree murder on November 24, 2015, just three hours before the dash-cam footage

    was released to the public. He was released on bail, which was set at $1.5 million, and he

    posted a required 10% of that, six days later. Due to the protests that went through Chicago

    for years, Officer Van Dyke was retried for second-degree and sixteen counts of aggravated

    battery. The jury believed he behaved lawfully, but that the shooting was unlawful, that he

    used deadly force appropriately. He was only given time for the second-degree murder and

    was sentenced to 81 months in prison. He was released after three years for good behaviour.

    I don’t believe Officer Van Dyke used appropriate force, when looking at the dash-

    cam footage you clearly see McDonald walk away before the officer begins firing. The entire

    case was a failed cover-up, and if that journalist had not requested for the dash-cam footage

    to be released, nothing would have happened. While the case is important since it led to a call

    for police reform in Chicago, it still took four years for the officer to be properly tried. As
    4

    well as the entire department attempting to cover the case up, with multiple officers saying

    different things. There’s genuinely no telling what the truth and a lie in this case is, since the

    court documents are still sealed to the public. Including the fact that it took the Department of

    Justice almost a decade to properly investigate the Chicago Police department, even after in

    courtit was pointed out that the officers had lied in their reports and in court. This case is a

    perfect example of police brutality and the issues with the justice system that is set in place,

    and how they push a large favour towards officers. Officer Van Dyke misused deadly force,

    did not give proper aid to the victim, and lied in court multiple times.
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    References

    Police shoot, Kill Knife-Wielding teen on south side. (2015, February 24). CBS News.

    https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/police-shoot-kill-knife-wielding-teen-on-

    south-side/

    Means, (D.M). (2014, October 20). Laquan McDonald autopsy report. Scribd.

    https://www.scribd.com/doc/291181503/Laquan-McDonald-Autopsy-Report

    Muchow, A. N., McCarty, W. P., Burke, P., & Moreno, R. (2023). Depolicing in Chicago:

    Assessing the Quantity and Quality of Policing after the Fatal Police Shooting of

    Laquan McDonald. Justice Quarterly, 40(7), 975–998.

    https://doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2023.2232007

    People v. Van Dyke, 2020 Ill. App. 191384 (Ill. App. Ct. 2020)

    https://casetext.com/case/people-v-van-dyke-2003

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