After several months of public pressure and a judge’s order last week, the city of Chicago released disturbing video of a white police officer emptying his gun into a black teenager’s body.
The officer involved in the shooting, Jason Van Dyke, has been placed on a non-paid status and will be held accountable by the courts, Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said at a news conference on Tuesday night.
“The officer in this case took a young man’s life and he’s going to have to account for his actions,” McCarthy said. “People have a right to be angry, people have a right to protest.”
“We knew this day was coming,” he continued. “We’ve been prepared for this day coming for quite some time.”
The dashcam video captured the final, violent moments of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald’s life at the hands of Van Dyke, charged with first-degree murder just hours before the video’s release.
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Responding to the video’s release, activists took to the streets Tuesday evening to demand justice.
“Tonight, what we’re having is another instance of a killing, a public lynching of another young black man so we’re asking you to give us some space to process our feeling around that. … Their feelings might be raw,” Fresco Steez of the Black Youth Project 100 told the Chicago Tribune.
Long before its release, the video was described as extremely disturbing, so much that even after lawyers for McDonald’s family had obtained it, they refused to view it.
“Anyone who is there to uphold the law cannot act as though they are above the law,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel said. “Jason Van Dyke does not represent the police department.”
The video is indeed graphic and disturbing. In announcing the charges against Van Dyke, State Attorney Anita Alvarez called the video “chilling.”
“I’ve been a prosecutor for nearly 30 years,” Alvarez said on Tuesday afternoon. “I have personally investigated and prosecuted numerous cases of police misconduct and public corruption, I’ve been involved in hundreds of murder investigations and trials, and I’ve seen some of the most violent and graphic evidence and crime scene photos that you can only imagine. To watch a 17-year-old young man die in such a violent manner is simply disturbing and I have absolutely no doubt that this video will tear at the hearts of all Chicagoans.”
It is believed that Van Dyke, 37, and a veteran of the force, is the first Chicago police officer charged with murder for an on-duty killing in the city’s history.
“The violence in this video is shocking and upsetting,” Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin said in a statement Tuesday evening. “Our law enforcement officers protect and serve their communities with honor and courage, but those who fail to follow the high standards they have sworn to uphold must be held accountable. There is a legal process underway and that process should move forward in a fair and expeditious manner. I urge all Chicagoans to face this tragedy with peaceful resolve and not with violence.”
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Echoing Durbin’s sentiment, U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly of Illinois issued the following statement late Tuesday:
“I cannot begin to fully express the depth of my outrage at the senseless killing of Laquan McDonald. The video is nothing short of horrific. I offer my condolences to the McDonald family, for whom the pain of losing their loved one has undoubtedly been compounded by having his death on public display.








