CHICAGO (Reuters) – White Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke was found guilty of second-degree murder on Friday for the 2014 shooting of black teen Laquan McDonald, a case that laid bare tensions between the black community and the police department in the third-largest U.S. city.
Van Dyke, 40, was accused of shooting 17-year-old McDonald, who was armed with a knife, 16 times. Van Dyke was charged with murder, aggravated battery and official misconduct.
The conviction on the lesser charge of second-degree murder suggests the jury credited Van Dyke’s claim that he believed there was a threat but found his belief was unreasonable.
A dashboard camera video, released more than a year after the Oct. 20, 2014, shooting in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by a journalist, showed police gunning down McDonald who fell to the ground.
Van Dyke, who could be sentenced to life in prison, is the first Chicago police officer to face a murder charge for an on-duty incident in decades.
The killings of mostly unarmed black men at hands of police, some of which were captured on video, helped give rise to the Black Lives Matter movement and became an issue in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.
The video of McDonald’s shooting sparked days of protests in Chicago, led to the dismissal of the city’s police superintendent and calls for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel resignation.
Jury deliberations began on Thursday afternoon
Van Dyke, who faces life in prison, was the first Chicago police officer to be charged with murder for an on-duty incident in decades.
Illinois state judge Vincent Gaughan oversaw the trial in Cook County circuit court.
During the three-week trial, prosecutors repeatedly showed the dashboard camera video, arguing to jurors that it clearly showed McDonald, who was carrying a knife, was not moving toward Van Dyke at the time the officer began shooting.
Van Dyke testified in his own defense, saying he feared for his safety and fired because McDonald was advancing on him. Both the officer and his lawyers argued that the video, which was taken from the side, did not reflect the incident from his perspective.
Defense lawyers also portrayed McDonald as a dangerous armed criminal under the influence of a drug.
City officials resisted releasing the video publicly but eventually did so in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by a journalists. The video sparked days of protests, led to the firing of Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy and prompted calls for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to resign.
The 12-person jury included one black member.
Finally a copfuk gets the conviction he so richly deserves.
Well they kill each other by the score on weekends.
With that conviction comes less policing and more black on black murders, just like in baltimore after freddie gray. Unfortunately the price of a civil society is the untimely death of criminals.
He murdered the kid. A 3″ blade???? That’s a pocket knife. He didn’t fear for his life he just figured he’d get the usual bullshit cop out (literally) about “heroes” in uniform.
And maybe the kid would have grown up to be just another ghetto rat. But maybe he would have become the male Candice Owens. We’ll never know.
Yup. Cop, judge, juror, executioner – those are supposed to be SEPARATE jobs.
A strike to the neck with a 1 inch pocket knife can easily be fatal. Cops by and large do get away with way too much but any knife is a deadly weapon.
CC – you clearly know little about knives. A three inch blade can be quite lethal. Pierce the heart, cut arteries and windpipe, etc.
Right and a ball point pen shoved into the carotid artery is also potentially fatal. It’s worth a tazing or an ass whooping but if you can’t handle that ‘weapon’ with less than 16 gunshots you don’t deserve to be there to ‘protect and to serve’. Find a job as a florist or a convict.
CC – seriously, quit while you are behind. A three inch knife is a lethal weapon, and there is no argument. The kid was within fifteen feet of the cop. The kid would have almost certainly reached the cop had he suddenly tried to attack, and the odds that the cop could have brought him down before he did would have been small – the cop would have been lucky to have hit him at all, much less to have hit him in a spot to bring him down instantly.
Your comment re an asswhooping are stupid. The kid had a knife – no one was ever going to approach him to disarm him. That is begging to get killed.
I guess you are of the belief that just shoot him in the leg is an option, right? You now have shown not only are you ignorant of how deadly are knives, but you also know nothing about guns, either.
There were other options available to the cop before he got out of the car. But once he was out and was so close to the kid, shooting him became about the only option that did not entail severe risk.
Shooting him after he was down was murder.
Is this your version of Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness? Stay where you are. We can do better.
Oh and by the way he was convicted by a jury of his peers.
He was convicted because he shot him 16 times, mostly after he was down. If he had just dropped him, he would have skated.
Here, stop this attack CC—–LOL
Or this,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js0haocH4-o
Make sure to notify all the lifers at the all black prison where he will be staying that he was a dirty cop.
He won’t do time in the state system. He will be transferred to the federal system where he will be incarcerated under an “assumed name” at a “country club” facility on a military base. He may “skate” on the 2nd degree murder charge as the sentence is probation to life, but on the aggravated use of a weapon, the sentence is six to 30 years.
16 rounds is what did him in. If he had just shot the drug crazed punk a couple of times he probably would have not been convicted or just convicted of manslaughter.
I thought this one was especially egregious. Looks like murder to me but we’ll have to check with star first. He’ll know for sure (sarc).
You don’t need me. Just listen to Llpoh. Shooting him while he was down is murder.
Star – that was the issue. The first shot or two he could justify – he was definitely in harm’s way. The rest – not so much.
I’m glad to hear you say that, star.
2nd degree seems more appropriate than 1st degree. Hard to imagine that he got up that day and said “I’m going to shoot me a black kid today.” MURDER is certainly appropriate over manslaughter as he clearly had NO REASON to shot this kid 16 times (or at all for that matter, given the distance away, etc.). I can certainly see how a jury could not find enough to justify the 1st degree charge, but quite thankful that they did find for 2nd. Finally a tiny bit of justice against our oppressors.
Once again, 15 feet away, armed with a knife = lethal threat. Moving target, less than a second to bring him down = justified shooting. Just not 16 times with him already down.
Clearly an execution–but I hate the fact that the MSM/Reuters is using it to push the victimization narrative for those “poor oppressed blacks”
This comment–“The killings of mostly unarmed black men at hands of police, some of which were captured on video, helped give rise to the Black Lives Matter movement”– is just, plain old fake news. Stats confirm that more whites are shot by cops than blacks although they commit only a fraction of violent crime.
I guess we’re long past the point of truth being reported –and we’re even long past the point where a person can even openly express truth and facts without the risk of landing in court on hate-speech charges.
By th look of the video, the kid was about 12 to 15 feet from the officer. In an attack, he could close that distance in under one second. Bullets do not always drop the assailant, and fact is, cops will miss far more often than they will hit the target at that distance. It was a very dangerous situation for the cop. I would not convict the cop for shooting him considering that fact, if he had shot him only until he went down.
However, to shoot him 16 times, mostly after he was down, was clearly murder.
Fear
I am not so sure if we are rational in extreme emergency.
What is the history of the person killed? Maybe the cop knew the history of this person by the way he acted. It has to be a tough job encountering these types. We kill rabid dogs but it seems to be a problem killing rabid humans.
That black guy must have really been hopped up on some kind of real high potency dope. He pulled his britches up!
3rd World America. Civilization held hostage by savages. Accept. Stay grey. Do what you gotta do. Then keep your mouth shut. It ain’t gonna get better. Adapt.
I think the jury gave the right verdict in this. If the guy approached the officer with the knife, that could have been a different story.
He was two strides from the cop. If attacked, the cop had under a second. It was the last 14 shots that convicted him, not the first two.,
I’m sure you’re right about that. BUT since when is it ok to shoot someone because they MIGHT do something?
A knife pulled shows intent. I think Llpoh is right. It was the last 14 shots that got him convicted.
He didn’t attack. “Shows intent” is not the same as taking action.
The cop and the perp ultimately got what they deserved. Play stoopid games…
Seldom mentioned is the fact that the step mom received 5 million dollars from the city of Chicago a few months after the shooting.