Chicago Officer Charged With 1st Degree Murder in Death of 17 Year Old McDonald

[Shellback]

It seemed obvious to me he was in an altered state...

What's why I wrote, "A little wee-bobbing and seemed to be pretty oblivious to what was going on."

ETA - I honestly care less. What bothers me is the dude shooting a person who's already been put down.

[TAZ]

I can understand the initial shots as one could articulate that a sudden turn toward a fellow officer by a guy who supposedly demonstrated his willingness to slash things (cruiser tires) would pose a threat. Once the guy was down and not mobile and access to a contact weapon he no longer posed a threat. You can clearly see atleast one puff of smoke from rounds impacting. There in lies a murder charge. Not sure about 1st degree, but politics are politics.

As far as the settlement that was for the civil suit brought against the department. This is for the criminal case against the officer. Two distinctly different events. So just cause the city settled doesn't mean criminal proceedings are all done with or visa versa for that matter.

You guys in that neck of the woods be safe!!

[Lon]

I have problems with what I see in the video. A case like this is a perfect example of why each patrol car or officer should have a means of deploying LL force from a distance. Like a LL shotgun or a taser. How many cops were there? 6? 8? And no one had a LL option?

I think the officer is screwed one way or the other. Even if he should beat a murder case, I imagine the DOJ Civil Rights Div will step up and charge him with criminal civil rights violations, a la the LAPD Rodney King incident. If it did really take him 14 seconds to shoot 16 times, I'm surprised they haven't gone after the partner for not stopping him sooner.

[John Hearne]

This is just speculation on my part but, I suspect the officer drew a mental line in the sand and essentially said if he does anything I'm going to shoot. Once such a general trigger is set, the rapid motion by the suspect was enough to trigger the response. It would useful to know what radio traffic and other information was provided to the officer prior to the shooting. Those facts could frame the need to use deadly force as greater or lesser depending on what was provided. Let's not forget that the suspect was one lane width away (~11 feet) from the officer - that's not very much of a buffer with a suspect armed with an edge weapon.

Tom Aveni did a great study in which he deliberately created ambiguous shooting scenarios and controlled for a butt load of variables. He found that the higher the "acting quotient" by the suspect the more likely an officer was to decide to shoot. The rapid movement by the suspect, his possession of a lethal weapon, and hand position by the waistband are all factors more likely to make an officer shoot.

If there are in fact two volleys of shots, one on the ground, then that is going to be tough to explain with a contact weapon. If the suspect tried to access his waistband once he was on the ground, then additional shots might make more sense. If you download the video and play it frame by frame you can see at least one of the suspects hands moving.

Society has shifted to a point that officer's are presumed to have done wrong unless the video and audio show otherwise. Not having the audio on this is going to be important and could really make a difference in this case. I believe that video and audio will almost always exonerate an officer but you have to make sure you have both.

Edited to add: And again we see the effect of non-compliance with legitimate commands by suspects. Had he proned out when ordered and allowed himself to be handcuffed, none of this would have happened.

[YVK]

suspect is closing towards officers and appears to turn towards them.

There is a traffic dashed line on the ground. He crosses it away from the officers at the beginning and never crosses it back. I don't see him closing, not with his feet at least. To me it looks like the dude is walking away.

[Dagga Boy]

Did the responding officers know he was whacked out prior to the shooting and autopsy?

You asked a question, I gave you an answer that there are specific symptoms that indicate PCP influence. That wobbly gait is indicative of two symptoms of PCP influence, muscle rigidity (which was very obvious when spun at the initial part of the shooting) and impaired ability to tandem walk properly. Others such as excessive sweating, foaming at the mouth, erections, and incoherent ranting and rambling and they have a weird sweet smell that emits heavily from them.

We agree...the shots on the ground are not justifiable, nor will I excuse them. I also have no idea why this took as long as it did.

So...I'll leave this to the experts to continue to discuss.

[LittleLebowski]

Publicly available autopsy says no drugs found in McDonald. However, see this from April for a conflicting report.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...414-story.html

[breakingtime91]

I don't know how anyone is looking at this and calling it a good shoot. I understand shit happens and sometimes the lines are blurred but this looks pretty fucking bad to me. Also if they did try to cover it up with money/deleting video, holy shit.

[Kukuforguns]

Publicly available autopsy says no drugs found in McDonald.

Google "Laquan McDonald PCP." The autopsy did not look for PCP. At least one Chicago newspaper reported seeing a drug panel that showed PCP in his system after it submitted a FOIA (or Illinois equivalent) request.

[LittleLebowski]

I also have no idea why this took as long as it did.

I honestly think they were waiting for cold weather and avoiding prime riot summer season.