It was murder. Plain and simple.
But let’s start with the account from the police union, as described to the Chicago Tribune in October 2014:
“He’s got a 100-yard stare. He’s staring blankly,” [Fraternal Order of Police spokesman Pat] Camden said of the teen. “[He] walked up to a car and stabbed the tire of the car and kept walking.”
Officers remained in their car and followed McDonald as he walked south on Pulaski Road. More officers arrived and police tried to box the teen in with two squad cars, Camden said. McDonald punctured one of the squad car’s front passenger-side tires and damaged the front windshield, police and Camden said.
Officers got out of their car and began approaching McDonald, again telling him to drop the knife, Camden said. The boy allegedly lunged at police, and one of the officers opened fire.
McDonald was shot in the chest and taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 10:42 p.m.
Emphasis mine.
Let’s see what actually happened:
Not quite the same. And NBC News in Chicago reports that after the shooting police arrived at a nearby Burger King to review surveillance footage from the restaurant:
After the shooting, according to Jay Darshane, the District Manager for Burger King, four to five police officers wearing blue and white shirts entered the restaurant and asked to view the video and were given the password to the equipment. Three hours later they left, he said.
The next day, when an investigator from the Independent Police Review Authority asked to view the security footage, it was discovered that 86 minutes of the video were missing.
In a statement, a spokesman for the IPRA said: “We have no credible evidence at this time that would cause us to believe CPD purged or erased any surveillance video.”
But according to Darshane, both the cameras and video recorder were all on and working properly the night of the shooting.
“We had no idea they were going to sit there and delete files,” Darshane said. “I mean we were just trying to help the police officers.”
Rrrrright.
The levels of repulsiveness in this incident are alarming. Not only the shooting, but the cover-up, and the fact that it never would have come to light but for legal persistence and FOIA requests. One can imagine how often the police were able to get away with these things before video cameras.
Protests are most peaceful, but continue:
After a night of loud, angry protests but few arrests, police and elected officials are bracing Wednesday for more possible backlash over the release of a dramatic video showing a white Chicago police officer shooting at a black teenager as he lay on the street.
Organizers from Stop Mass Incarceration Network Chicago have called for new protests Wednesday in Chicago’s Loop and in the busy retail strip along north Michigan Avenue on Friday.
On Tuesday night, crowds of well over 200 people marched through downtown streets chanting “16 shots,” a reference to the number of times that, prosecutors say, Officer Jason Van Dyke fired at 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, who died later of gunshot wounds.
Scores of protesters clashed mildly with police late into the evening, occasionally pushing and shoving with officers in heated confrontations.
Even right wing reaction is muted. Sean Hannity had to admit this was murder (but then he shifted focus to “what about all the police who have been killed”).