Report: High-ranking officers allowed to retire after Laquan McDonald shooting
CHICAGO - Chicago’s Office of Inspector General recommended firing two chief police detectives along with rank-and-file officers who are accused of providing false accounts of the fatal shooting of a black teenager by a white police officer, according to a report published Friday based on newly released documents.
Instead, Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson - who was promoted when Garry McCarthy was fired from the top police job after the release of a video of the shooting of Laquan McDonald - terminated only lower-ranking officers, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Chief of Detectives Eugene Roy was allowed to step down as he neared the mandatory retirement age and the highest-ranking officer at the scene of the McDonald shooting, Deputy Chief David McNaughton, also retired.
The newspaper reported that officials met in the days following the 2014 shooting, viewed the video and approved reports, even though the reports conflicted with footage showing McDonald veering away from officers as he was shot 16 times.
Inspector General Joseph Ferguson’s office recommended firing 11 police officers, including Roy, who supervised the department’s investigation into McDonald’s shooting. The inspector general found that Roy was “incompetent in the performance of his duties.” The inspector general recommended on Aug. 17 that Johnson fire Roy, but Roy retired Sept. 15, according to department records.
Johnson referred questions to a police department spokesman who wouldn’t discuss details of the report.
Officer Jason Van Dyke faces a first-degree murder charge in McDonald’s death. Van Dyke’s attorney, Daniel Herbert, told the newspaper that the inspector general’s documents show Johnson was unwilling to hold command officers responsible.
McDonald’s death prompted a probe of Chicago police practices by the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, which is expected to wrap up in the first months of next year.
Van Dyke is the first Chicago officer in nearly 35 years to be charged with first-degree murder for an on-duty fatality. A grand jury is deciding whether to indict other officers at the scene, who were fired for allegedly lying in their reports.
