Murder of Laquan McDonald

The murder of Laquan McDonald took place on October 20, 2014, in Chicago, Illinois. McDonald was a 17-year-old who was fatally shot by a Chicago Police Officer, Jason Van Dyke. Police had initially reported that McDonald was behaving erratically while walking down the street, refusing to put down a knife, and that he had lunged at officers. Preliminary internal police reports described the incident similarly, leading to the shooting being judged as justifiable, and Van Dyke not being charged at the time. This was later disproved after a video of the encounter was released, showing that McDonald was walking away.

The video of the shooting was initially withheld from the public for more than a year, which later sparked criticism for the delay. On November 24, 2015, thirteen months after the shooting, a court ordered the police to release a dash cam video of the shooting. It showed that McDonald was walking away from the police when he was shot 16 times by Officer Van Dyke. That same day, Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder, and was initially held without bail at the Cook County Jail. He was released on bail on November 30. The city reached a settlement with McDonald's family for $5 million in April 2015. On October 5, 2018, Van Dyke was found guilty of second-degree murder, as well as 16 counts of aggravated battery with a firearm. Van Dyke was sentenced to prison in January 2019 and was released early for good behavior in February 2022.

Protests followed the murder of McDonald, criticising the lack of transparency from the Rahm Emanuel administration, demanding changes in police and judicial procedures and police oversight, and for the dismissal or resignation of city and county officials including the mayor. For several months, Emanuel had claimed that making the video public would jeopardize a federal investigation into the shooting and had resisted allowing the video to be shown to the public, however the Justice Department never raised any issues with the public release of the footage. Rahm Emanuel had already won a second term in 2015 as Mayor of Chicago (prior to the release of the dash cam video), but Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez lost her bid for reelection in 2016.

At the request of Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, the United States Department of Justice initiated a civil rights investigation into McDonald's murder and the activities of the Chicago Police Department. It released its report in January 2017, describing the police as having a culture of "excessive violence," especially against minority suspects, and of having poor training and supervision. DOJ and city officials signed a consent decree for a plan for improvement to be overseen by the courts. Moreover, three Chicago police officers were tried for allegedly attempting to cover up events related to the murder, and were found not guilty by the Cook County Circuit Court on January 17, 2019. Provided by Wikipedia