Chicago bracing for video of police shooting teen
CHICAGO -- Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has invited ministers and community activists to City Hall to discuss the upcoming release of a police car dashcam video that shows a white officer fatally shooting a black teenager last year.
Seventeen-year-old Laquan McDonald was shot 16 times. Police have said he refused to drop a knife.
There is growing concern in the community about what could happen when people see the incident for themselves. A judge last week ordered the video released no later than Wednesday.
A source close to the investigation believes the officer who shot McDonald will be indicted Tuesday, reports CBS Chicago. The exact nature of the charges was not immediately known.
Two ministers invited to the meeting Monday afternoon say they think Emanuel is going to ask them to call for calm.
Ira Acree and Marshall Hatch say blacks in the city are upset about the shooting and the city's refusal for several months to release the video.
CBS Chicago reports Emanuel held a conference call on Monday with key civic leaders, urging calm once a video of the shooting of is released.
In the call, the mayor called the shooting "hideous."
While the city originally planned to appeal the ruling to make the video public - and had argued releasing it could jeopardize an investigation of the shooting - the mayor's office later said the city would comply with the order, CBS Chicago reports.
"We must try to keep this thing as calm as possible, but when the Chicago police take and slaughter a 17-year-old child, you have upset our community," said Mark Carter, a community activist with the group ONE Chicago.
Carter said the mayor should lead an effort to make sure the officer is indicted, and should also demand the resignation of Police Supt. Garry McCarthy.
Although the mayor initially fought the effort to make the video public, he reversed course last week, and criticized the officer's actions.
"Police officers are entrusted to uphold the law, and to provide safety to our residents. In this case, unfortunately, it appears an officer violated that trust at every level. As a result, the city's Independent Police Review Authority promptly sent this case and the evidence to state and federal prosecutors who have been investigating it for almost a year," he said in a prepared statement last week.
CBS Chicago reports that attorneys for McDonald's family have seen the video, and said it is shocking and disturbing, and have described the shooting as an "execution."
"The first shot or two seem to spin him on the ground. He falls down. He's down on the ground, and for the next 30 seconds or so, in this video, the officer just continues to shoot," Neslund said earlier this month. "What you see are graphic puffs of smoke rising from Laquan and intermittently his body twitching, in reaction to the shots."
CBS Chicago reports that the city's police union has said McDonald was slashing tires with a 4-inch knife, and high on PCP, when he refused police orders to drop the weapon. Officer Jason Van Dyke has said McDonald lunged at him. His attorney, Dan Herbert has acknowledged video is graphic, but he said the officer feared for his safety, and the shooting was justified.
"He firmly believed he was in fear for his life and concerned about the life of his fellow officers," Herbert said last week.
The city agreed to a $5 million settlement with McDonald's family even before a lawsuit was filed. Van Dyke, a 14-year veteran, has been stripped of his police powers, pending investigations by federal and Cook County prosecutors.