Video Shows Police Shooting Ronald Johnson

CHICAGO -- The Chicago Police Department has released the police shooting video of 25-year-old Ronald Johnson from 2014.

The release of the video comes on the heels of Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez’s announcement from Monday morning that no criminal charges would be filed against George Hernandez, the officer who shot Johnson during a foot chase in the early morning hours of Oct. 12, 2014.

• Also on Patch: Cop in Ronald Johnson Police Shooting Will Not Be Charged: Alvarez

Like the Laquan McDonald police shooting video, the dashcam from the Johnson foot chase does not contain audio. The video is overlaid with audio from the Office of Emergency Management and Communications.

At 9:15 into the video, an unmarked police car rolls into view. Hernandez jumps out of the car and picks up the foot chase, where Johnson is seen running southbound on South King Drive into the camera’s view.

Hernandez extends his arm and fires at Johnson, who runs into a park. Unlike the McDonald dashcam video, viewers don’t see Johnson fall to ground.

An officer yells, “shots fired, shots fired,” to the OEMC dispatcher.

Hernandez was the only officer at the scene to fire his weapon.

Alvarez said an earlier press conference that Hernandez fired five shots at Johnson. Two of those bullets hit Johnson, one behind the knee and the fatal shot that entered his armpit and exited out of his eye socket.

The state’s attorney also said that the driver of the vehicle, in which Johnson was riding with three other people when the car was shot upon at South King Drive and 53rd Street, heard Johnson cocking a 9mm handgun in the back seat.

Johnson was seated behind the driver and the car drove back to scene where it had been fired upon. Nobody in the car called 911 or went to the police station to report the shooting. Nor did anyone inside the vehicle flag down a passing police car.

The driver told police that he thought Johnson had a gun on him, where Johnson was seated in the rear of the car directly behind the driver, because of the gun’s racking.

Alvarez also said that a 9mm round consistent with cocking a gun was found in the back seat where Johnson had been seated. She said the bullet tested positive for Johnson’s DNA and matched ballistics testing on Johnson’s gun.

The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, after reviewing evidence presented to her office by the Independent Police Review Authority, indicated that Hernandez’s actions were lawful and permissible.

The state’s attorney also showed an enhanced clip from the police shooting video showing what she claimed was a gun in Johnson’s hand.

The man’s family and attorney say that Johnson was unarmed when he was shot in the back by police. The family has filed a federal civil suit against the Chicago Police Department and Officer George Hernandez.

Attorney Michael Oppenheimer, who is representing Johnson’s family in its lawsuit, called the presentation by Alvarez’s officer, which included a detailed PowerPoint presentation, an “infomercial” without a lot of information.

None of the information presented conclusively demonstrated that Hernandez was justified in shooting Ronald Johnson, CNN reported.

“You can see no gun,” the attorney said. “There is no gun visible in Ronald Johnson’s hand, because there was none.”

Dorothy Holmes, Johnson’s mother, said she was disappointed that the Cook County State’s Attorney would not be pressing criminal charges against the officer.

“I hope one day she feels the pain that I feel,” Holmes said.