Van Dyke Attorneys Put Laquan McDonald's Troubled Past On Trial

CHICAGO, IL -- Jason Van Dyke’s attorneys presented evidence for the third day on Wednesday. The white Chicago police officer faces multiple counts of first-degree murder, aggravated battery and official police misconduct in the on-duty shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. Van Dyke was arrested 13 months after the October 2014 shooting, when a graphic police dashcam video showed the police officer shooting the teen 16 times.

This week, activists held a vigil outside the Leighton Criminal Court building Tuesday evening, on what would have been McDonald's 21st birthday.

Defense attorneys spent Wednesday morning casting McDonald as an an abrasive and combative youth, prone to threatening authority figures with violence. CPD Officer Theresa Valez, who initially argued with her partner about taking their dinner break of answering the call for backup units the evening of Oct. 20, 2014, because she wasn’t trained to use a taser.

When Valez arrived at 41st Street and Pulaski Road, she said that McDonald “looked deranged.” She said she unclipped her gun but didn’t fire it.

“I did notice a shiny object in his hand, which ended up being a knife,” the officer testified.

Jurors also heard from Rudy Barillas, the truck driver whose initial 911 call began the cataclysm of events that put Van Dyke and McDonald in each other’s paths.

Barillas was parking his truck in a secured lot when he saw a male black, later identified as McDonald, inside a truck. Barillas called 911. Answering questions through a Spanish interpreter, Barillas said he told McDonald in English to get out of truck.

“I told him I was going to call police if he didn’t leave” Barillas said. “When I told him to leave he came out of the truck.”

Barillas testified that he came within three feet of McDonald, when the teen pulled out a knife and “tried to stab me.”

“I threw my phone at him,” Barillas continued, stating that McDonald approached him a second time. “I got some dirt and gravel and threw it at his face. My wife got out of truck and tried to help me.”

McDonald did not speak to him but made a hacking noise, Barillas said. When police started rolling up moments later, McDonald left the truck yard, half running and half walking down 41st Street toward the Burger King on Pulaski Road.

More on Patch:

• Animated Video Shown To Laquan McDonald Jurors
• Expert Witness: Laquan Faced Van Dyke When Struck By Fatal Shot
• Prosecution Rests Case In Jason Van Dyke Murder Trial
• Cook County Medical Examiner Says 24 Holes Found In Laquan's Body
• Van Dyke's Partner Testifies Laquan McDonald Was A 'Threat'
• Testimony Begins In Jason Van Dyke Trial
• Jury Will Decide Fate Of Jason Van Dyke
• Jury Selected In Jason Van Dyke Trial
• 'I'm Not A Racist,' Says Chicago Cop In Laquan McDonald
• Police Reports of 'Lunging, Knife-Swinging' Laquan McDonald Contradict Video
• 3 Chicago Cops Indicted In Alleged Cover-Up Of Laquan McDonald Shooting
• 5 Perspectives on '16 Shots: The Death of Laquan McDonald'