Testimony Begins In Jason Van Dyke Trial

CHICAGO, IL -- The shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald was “completely unnecessary” prosecutors said as testimony got underway in the long awaited trial of Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke, who claims he was in fear for his life when he shot the knife-armed teen 16 times during an on-duty street confrontation nearly four years ago. A dash cam video released a year after the shooting shows McDonald walking away and not threatening officers, as was originally claimed.

Testimony moved at a fast clip on the first day of trial of Van Dyke, 40, who has pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of first-degree murder, aggravated battery and official misconduct. Van Dyke is the first Chicago police officer to be charged with murder for an on-duty fatality in decades. Jurors were shown the dash cam video of Van Dyke being shot in the street at least three times. At times, Van Dyke appeared to be looking at a laptop on the defense table as the video was being played; during other showings he averted his gaze.

Special prosecutor Joe McMahon said in opening statements that Van Dyke knew nothing about Laquan McDonald on the night of Oct. 20, 2014, other than that McDonald was “a black boy walking down Pulaski Road toward a chain link fence, who had the audacity to ignore police.”

“During the six seconds when Jason Van Dyke got out of his squad car, he didn’t know about any medical condition Laquan McDonald had. [Van Dyke] didn’t know until the autopsy came back weeks later did he learn that [McDonald] had PCP in his system or about his tragic childhood,” Herbert said. “The information about Laquan is what he knew and saw when he fired those 16 shots. Every bit of information he knew is on the video.”

McMahon concluded that it wasn’t necessary to kill McDonald to arrest him. He portrayed Van Dyke as over eager cop who tried exiting his police vehicle before it even stopped.

“This defendant gets out of his vehicle six seconds later and pulls the trigger,” McMahon said. “After the defendant starts shooting, Laquan McDonald is knocked to ground never to get up again. For the next 12.5 seconds the defendant keeps firing until the clip is empty, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and he’s only halfway done, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16 gunshots into the defenseless body of Laquan.”

When Van Dyke’s partner, Joe Walsh, walked up to kick the knife out of the teen’s hand, McMahon said Van Dyke was reloading his gun.

“Laquan McDonald isn’t on trial here,” the special prosecutor said.

Van Dyke’s attorney Daniel Herbert countered in his opening “that the government would have you believe this was a race issue. It’s inflammatory. This isn’t about race but a scared police officer in fear for his life.” Van Dyke is white, and McDonald is black.

Herbert told jurors that McDonald had been on a “24-hour wild rampage through the city,” using a veteran’s CTA pass to travel from neighborhood to neighborhood, where the teen attempted to carjack a West Side woman’s car and smoked PCP. When a truck driver finishing his shift confronted McDonald in the secured parking lot on Oct. 20, 2014, Herbert alleged that the teen threatened the man with knife. Using his cell phone to call 911, the truck driver was so scared that he threw his cell phone at McDonald and then rocks. Herbert said McDonald flicked open his knife, “stabbing” a patrol car’s tire and started running toward a crowded Burger King, but when police squads blocked his way, the teen changed direction and started running toward a Dunkin’ Donuts instead, knife in hand, when Van Dyke and his partner, Joe Walsh, arrived on the scene.

“They want you to look at the final chapter without reading the book, or showing up the last two minutes without seeing the movie,” Herbert told the jury. “The video doesn’t show the desperation and violent acts of Laquan McDonald. We’re going to show you the context. Evidence will show he was scared police officer fearful for his life.”

Van Dyke’s attorney said the police officer acted lawfully when he shot Laquan McDonald. Herbert also told jurors that the defense would be calling in experts who would testify about the physiological changes a police officer experiences when firing a gun.

The jury also heard testimony from Laquan’s great aunt, Clarissa Hunter, who said she last saw her great nephew two days before his death, and Tabitha Thiery, the 911 dispatcher who took the initial call of a “man armed with a knife.”

Joseph McElligott, the first officer to respond to the 911 call, testified that McDonald did not make any “direct movement” toward himself or his partner who was inside the patrol car. He described McDonald as “seeming out of it.”

The final witness of the day, CPD Officer Dora Fontaine, who was granted immunity for her testimony, appeared to be climbing out of the squad car as the shooting started in the video. She said she saw “smoke coming out of McDonald’s body.”

Fontaine said that she saw the teen walking in the roadway “swaying the knife.” Contradicting testimony she had given to a grand jury in June 2015, the former patrol officer, now consigned to desk duty, said that McDonald did not make any threatening gestures toward police with the knife.

Photo: Getty Images

Video of Jason Van Dyke leaving court Monday by Patch Editor Lorraine Swanson