Laquan McDonald

Case background and investigation

On the night of October 20, 2014, 17-year-old Laquan McDonald was fatally shot by Chicago Police Department officer Jason Van Dyke on the city's Southwest Side. Police had been called to the area after reports that McDonald, who was carrying a knife, was breaking into vehicles. Van Dyke fired 16 shots at McDonald within seconds of arriving on the scene. Preliminary internal police reports characterized the shooting as justified, describing McDonald as having lunged at or advanced toward officers, and Van Dyke was not charged at the time.

Police dashcam footage of the incident was not made public until more than a year later. On November 24, 2015, following a court order sought by a freelance journalist, the city released the video. The footage showed McDonald walking away from officers, at an angle to Van Dyke, when he was shot and continued to be shot after he fell to the ground. The video's contents differed from the accounts in the initial police reports. Its release the same day prosecutors filed charges triggered sustained protests in Chicago and became a focal point in national debates over policing and accountability.

The fallout was swift. On the day the video was released, Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez charged Van Dyke with first-degree murder. On December 1, 2015, Mayor Rahm Emanuel requested and received the resignation of Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy. Alvarez subsequently lost her March 2016 reelection primary to challenger Kim Foxx. Earlier, in April 2015, the city had agreed to pay McDonald's family a $5 million settlement.

Van Dyke's trial ran from September 17 to October 5, 2018. On October 5, 2018, a Cook County jury found Van Dyke guilty of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery with a firearm, one for each shot; he was acquitted of official misconduct. On January 18, 2019, Judge Vincent Gaughan sentenced him to 81 months (about six years and nine months) in prison. Van Dyke was released on February 3, 2022, after serving roughly three years and three months, with credit for good behavior.

Three other officers were separately prosecuted on charges of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and official misconduct for allegedly falsifying reports to conceal the circumstances of the shooting. Detective David March, Van Dyke's partner Joseph Walsh, and officer Thomas Gaffney chose a bench trial. On January 17, 2019, Cook County Associate Judge Domenica Stephenson acquitted all three, finding that special prosecutors had not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that a conspiracy existed or that the officers had lied.

The case also prompted broader scrutiny of the Chicago Police Department. At the request of Illinois officials, the U.S. Department of Justice opened a civil rights investigation and, in January 2017, issued a report finding a pattern of unconstitutional use of force and deficiencies in training, supervision, and accountability. After the federal government under a new administration declined to pursue a federal consent decree, the Illinois Attorney General sued the city, and a court-enforceable consent decree governing police reforms took effect in early 2019 under federal court oversight, where it remains in place.