Police Reports of 'Lunging, Knife-Swinging' Laquan McDonald Contradict Video

Sometime around 3:30 a.m., Oct. 21, 2014, Chicago Police News Affairs released a press statement of a “police-involved shooting” that had occurred hours earlier, claiming that a police officer had shot and killed a “male subject” armed with a knife in self defense:

“On Monday, October 20, 2014, at approximately 9:45 pm, officers assigned to the 008th District (Chicago Lawn) were investigating a 911 call of a male subject who was breaking into vehicles in the vicinity of the 4100 block of S. Karlov. Responding uniformed officers approached a subject who produced a knife and proceeded to puncture the front passenger tire and damage the front windshield of their marked Chicago Police vehicle. The offender fled on foot with officers in pursuit. Near the intersection of 4100 S. Pulaski, uniformed officers confronted the armed offender who refused to comply with orders to drop the knife and continued to approach the officers. As a result of this action, the officer discharged his weapon striking the offender. The offender was transported to an area hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. No officers were injured during the incident.”

• Also on Patch: Video Shows Jason Van Dyke Shoot Laquan McDonald

That “male subject” turned out to be 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, an African-American teen shot to death by a white Chicago police officer, Jason Van Dyke, who claimed that McDonald disobeyed orders to “drop the knife” as the teen approached the officer and his partner.

The court-ordered release of a police dashcam video contrasts sharply with the initial press release sent out by police hours after McDonald was shot to death. Before he was fired by Mayor Rahm Emanuel last Wednesday, former police superintendent Garry McCarthy admitted to knowing his own office had put out a misleading press release stating McDonald was moving toward or lunging at officer Jason Van Dyke.

The dashcam video also contradicts the release of hundreds of pages of police reports and documents of the “police involved” shooting, including statements made by Van Dyke, who has been charged in the teen’s murder. Van Dyke’s version of events are corroborated by other officers at the scene.

Rather than “aggressively approaching” the police officers, the video shows the teen walking away from a distance of 10 feet or more when felled by bullets from Van Dyke’s gun.

As McDonald lays in the street, barely moving, Van Dyke continues firing his Smith Wesson semi-automatic pistol at McDonald. It is Van Dyke’s partner, identified in the police reports as Joseph Walsh, who walks over to the dead teen and kicks the knife out of McDonald’s lifeless hand.

An autopsy report by the Cook County medical examiner would later determine that the “well developed, well nourished black male” was shot 16 times.

According to the case report, Van Dyke describes for a detective McDonald “holding the knife in his right hand in an underhanded grip” and “swinging his knife in an aggressive, exaggerated manner.” After ignoring Van Dyke’s “multiple” verbal commands to “drop the knife,” Van Dyke claims the teen continued to advance toward him.

“When McDonald got within 10 to 15 feet of Officer Van Dyke … McDonald raised the knife across his chest and over his shoulder, pointing the knife at Van Dyke. Van Dyke believed McDonald was attacking Van Dyke with the knife. In defense of his life, Van Dyke backpedaled and and fired his handgun at McDonald, to stop the attack. McDonald continued to move and continued to grasp the knife, refusing to let go of it. Van Dyke continued to fire at McDonald, as McDonald was on ground, as McDonald appeared to be attempting to get up, all the while continuing to point the knife at Van Dyke.”

The report describes Van Dyke’s gun with a magazine capacity of 15 rounds, locking in a rearward position, indicating that it had run out of ammunition. Van Dyke “performed a tactical reload of his pistol” while he “reassessed the situation.”

The documents released by the city late Friday include handwritten notes, the autopsy report, and supplemental police reports taken by the reporting Chicago police detective assigned to the immediate follow-up investigation.

Soon after the shooting, Van Dyke was taken off the street and assigned to desk duty. After his arrest last month, Van Dyke was suspended without pay.

Later this week, another police dashcam video showing a white police officer reportedly shooting an unarmed, 25-year-old black man is to be released. Mayor Emanuel says the city will not block it.

Dorothy Holmes, and her attorney, Michael Oppenheimer, claim Holmes’ son, Ronald Johnson, was unarmed when he was shot by a police officer during a foot chase, eight days before the Laquan McDonald shooting in October 2014.

Holmes has filed a federal lawsuit against the Chicago Police Department and the officer, who claims Johnson pointed a gun at him.

Johnson’s family says he was unarmed. Oppenheimer alleges police planted a gun at the scene.

“I am 100-percent certain that Ronald had nothing in his hands when he was running,” the attorney says, who has seen the video. “That gun was not in his hand unless the police glued it to his hand.”