By Andrew Emett
Chicago, IL — Accused of deleting the surveillance video of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald’s death, several officers appeared in recently released screenshots tampering with Burger King’s computers before the footage mysteriously disappeared. Although 86 minutes of the surveillance video have gone missing, including the moment that McDonald was gunned down, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez claims no one tampered with the footage.
Surrounded by officers and suspected of breaking into cars on October 20, 2014, Laquan McDonald, 17, was attempting to walk away from a group of Chicago cops when Officer Jason Van Dyke exited his patrol car. According to initial reports, McDonald was armed with a knife and lunged at Officer Van Dyke. Fearing for his life and the lives of his fellow officers, Van Dyke shot the teen in the chest out of self-defense.
But according to witness statements and police dashcam video, McDonald was walking away when Van Dyke opened fire. After McDonald had collapsed to the ground in a near-fetal position, Van Dyke continued firing his weapon until emptying his clip. As Van Dyke began reloading his gun, a fellow officer had to order him to cease firing at the dying teen.
McDonald’s autopsy revealed that Van Dyke shot him 16 times, including two bullets in the back, seven in his arms, two in his right leg, once on each side of his chest, and single bullets wounds to his right hand, scalp, and neck. Nine of the 16 entrance wounds had a downward trajectory. None of the five other officers at the scene fired their weapons.
Before McDonald’s family could even file a lawsuit, the city gave them a $5 million settlement on the condition that the family agreed not to publicly release the dashcam footage of the teen’s death. After suppressing the video for 13 months, the city received a court order to release the footage. The city released the dashcam video last week, which clearly shows McDonald did not lunge at the officers before the fatal shooting.
In May, Burger King district manager Jay Darshane accused officers of deleting the security footage after spending over three hours in the fast food restaurant on the night of the shooting. According to Darshane, the video equipment was working properly, but 86 minutes of footage, from 9:13 p.m. to 10:39 p.m., disappeared after the officers left.
Charged with first-degree murder, Van Dyke fired his first shot at 9:57 p.m. When asked if he was certain that the officers deleted the footage of the killing, Darshane answered, “Yes.”
“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.”
Unable to clearly explain why the 86 minutes disappeared, Police Supt. Garry McCarthy blamed the missing files on technical difficulties. At a press conference last week, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez asserted that no one had tampered with the Burger King surveillance video. When asked who conducted the forensic testing, Alvarez did not appear to know the answer.
Alvarez responded, “That’s all I’m going to say on this.”
On Monday, NBC5 obtained screenshots taken from a surveillance video inside Burger King on the night of McDonald’s death. The photos appear to show officers using the computer console that recorded the fatal shooting. Although the police department and state’s attorney claim the officers did not delete those 86 missing minutes, remember that this information is coming from the same cops who initially lied about the shooting and the same officials who suppressed the police dashcam video for 13 months.
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Andrew Emett writes for ThFreeThoughtProject.com
Systemic lying.
– can´t say much on the basis of the info presented. Only that a person who fires 13 shots into a teenager after 3 put him down, is insane. The additonal rounds after the youth was down, and an attempt to reload, reflect intense hate. All police persons who manipulated the console are guilty of destroying evidence of a 1st degree murder.
The U.S. cities to avoid is increasing in number. The states to avoid, also.
Every Officer involved need Prison time, and not is a swank “Special Facility”!
It was Blatant Murder and I’d love to see the Death penalty for the Officer (if you can call him that),
if the State allows. The Hush Money is about as bad. Every time I have dealt with Cops in my Medical related Business, they have had an attitude of Superiority and don’t want to follow the rules. Our Dr finally confronted one of them after refusing to give out information on the Medical file, the Dr just said to cancel his appointment, he wasn’t risking an office visit on someone who refused to fill out Medical history, full name and address. At that, the Officer became a bit more compliant.
Just jerks with a Cowboy mentality.
But it is usually only when these thugs are guilty of committing a crime, so they are no Angels, but no Human deserves that! Especially after he was down. It looks obvious to me the officer wanted him Dead after hitting him and he was down and no way going anywhere!
…I grew up in a family of corrupt cops and law enforcement….most people’s idea of such public servants is based upon TV shows…going back to…”The FBI”….on through to NCIS, SVU, etc. etc. We have glorified their position and even been…”entertained”…by their heroic lack of principles or humanity…if it means solving the case…or…”doing good”. These entertainment episodes are wrapped around a political agenda…(the torture-pleasing show…”24″)…and set the tone for our present situation. Throw in a lot of false-flag terrorism…(911, 7/7,Sandy Hook, etc.), a lot of corruption…and a lot of Israeli trained police forces…and POOF!… you have a police state! Oh, but excuse me…I have to go polish my tin-foil-hat.
RJ O’Guillory
How did you deal with your corrupt cop relatives? If it were me, I think I would have to distance myself from them completely.
…mostly…when we were young…it was just a way-of-life…and we didn’t know better. But as we got older…(driving age)…we used it to our advantage many times. In my memoir….Webster Groves…(which is being considered for a film)…I describe getting pulled over with coolers of beer, drunker than we should have been… and doing 100 miles per-hour across Missouri back in the late 70’s. We’d get pulled over, act respectful and responsive…and then simply… “mention”…that…”our Dad’s were cops too”…my Mom a Court Clerk, etc. Within minutes we’d be let free, sometimes they took our beer, sometimes not. One time as a teenager, my Mom told me she had fixed a ticket I’d received…but a short time later, I got arrested for…”failure to appear”! It seems my Mom’s “fixing job” didn’t work out too well and I never knew it! Then I was stuck having to go before the judge…and come up with some reason why I hadn’t appeared. I couldn’t very well tell him that my corrupt Court-Clerk-Mom had failed in her corruption? My Mom eventually got caught embezzling thousands from the ticket fund to finance her BINGO Habit. My brother and I used to drive around in his police cruiser…with a suction cup-bowl of weed attached to the dashboard, and a 3 foot line of aquarium tubing running from it. He would drive around with the tube in his mouth, and I’d light the bowl…as he puffed a bit of weed. Then we’d switch and he would lite the bowl for me. Then he would track someone down and ticket or arrest them…ha! It wasn’t until I went to work for US DoD and became a Federally Protected Whistle Blower that I decided I didn’t want to live such a corrupt life. That is a huge burden to carry with you through life, and I never wanted any part of it. But if you want to be entertained by dysfunctional idiocy…my memoir Webster Groves is a great place to start…ha!
RJ O’Guillory
So McDonald was gunned down at Burger King…hmmmm.
Hamburgler strikes again.
Mayor McCheese is trying to cover it up!
With what, another layer of cheese or some “special” sauce..?
Is he in league with Captain Crook?
He’s been throwing around a lot of pickles lately, it’s a good thing we have Grimace and Sir Shake A Lot as witnesses!
In all fairness… Emanuel was trying to get re-elected at the time. Gotta do what ya gotta do.
Absolutely awesome post btw.
How ironic.
…it took me a moment…but I see the irony now….sad, but funny…
RJ O’Guillory
Murder, plain and simple.
Not surprising they’d try to cover up evidence. Seems that’s the norm these days for police departments everywhere. At least the murdering cop got convicted. Wish I could be a fly on the wall when he gets to prison.
I think you are a bit premature.
Good thing I’m not a man, then.
It was my understanding that the cop was found guilty of murdering the young man. Is that not a conviction?
If you’re talking about the death of Laquan McDonald in Chicago, the police officer was just arrested and charged last week. A trial has not even started.
I must’ve confused him with another scumbag cop. Sorry.
If they tampered with the video, they are all accessories after the fact. They should all be indited for murder and face the appropriate penalty. If a cop is lacking in integrity, he is a threat to the community.
I’m curious why they deleted the video. The dash cam video is damning enough. There seems to be a whole lot more to the story.
They thought that they could hide the dash-cam. Paid $5m as a bribe.
Chitown Aviv. Was the kid palestinian?
Looks like all involved are going to get it Rahmed up their buttholes.
Gosh, not single cop troll in the comments here saying the kid deserved it. Maybe it’s because the Jack Yantis murder in Idaho proves exactly what I’ve been saying, that if we let cops get away with summary execution of anyone, then we are ALL at risk, even while we’re sitting at home having Sunday dinner with our families, as Yantis was.
When the Police become the Criminals, we are in serious trouble.
(AKA) SOP
The police murdering someone and then covering it all up ? No, really? They turned from being peace officers to professional killers and liars in just a couple decades. Officer Friendly has died.
I suppose ALL these cops would love to see a child of theirs shot SIXTEEN TIMES. What a bunch of cold-blooded slime!
If nothing new comes out at trial, then all of them are guilty accessories to the murder-cover up and deserve life. 120,000 cops in the US doing a full time job every day, and the very few cases like this destroys all their credibility and puts every one at risk of death by vigilante justice and society breakdown. Shame on the dirt bag family for taking the 5 mil out of tax payers pockets for a new house and car to keep quiet as well. Hope they enjoy their new Nike’s.
These thugs need to have there address put out so someone can pay them a visit..