Chicago
officer, charged with murdering black teen, posts bond
Send a link to a friend
[December 01, 2015]
By Mary Wisniewski and Justin Madden
CHICAGO (Reuters) - A white Chicago police
officer, charged with murdering a black teenager, posted bond on Monday
afternoon as protests continued over a patrol car's dashboard camera
video that showed the officer shooting the teen 16 times.
|
Protesters including NAACP President Cornell William Brooks were
arrested on Monday, according to the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People. Demonstrators have objected strongly
to the 13-month delay in releasing the video and charging the
officer for the 2014 shooting.
Police officer Jason Van Dyke appeared in shackles at Monday's
hearing, where Cook County Criminal Court Associate Judge Donald
Panarese, Jr. set bail at $1.5 million, of which 10 percent had to
be posted.
The police union president said union members were helping Van
Dyke's family raise the amount needed for Van Dyke to get out of
jail.
Last week, Van Dyke was denied bail because the judge wanted to see
the video first. Prosecutors asked on Monday that the previous
ruling stand, but Van Dyke's lawyer, Daniel Herbert, said his client
posed no flight risk.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Dec/01/images/ads/current/friendship_manor_sda_christmas2014.png) Several days of protests in the third-largest U.S. city have
followed the release last Tuesday of the video, which showed Van
Dyke gunning down 17-year-old Laquan McDonald in the middle of the
street on Oct. 20, 2014, as McDonald was walking away from police
who had confronted him. Van Dyke, 37, was charged with first-degree
murder.
High-profile killings of black men at the hands of mainly white law
enforcement officials in U.S. cities over the past two years have
prompted demonstrations across the country, and have stoked a
national debate on race relations and police tactics.
Herbert said Van Dyke is prepared to defend himself. "He is very
scared about the consequences that he's facing. He's concerned for
his wife and his children. But he's handling it like a
professional," Herbert said.
"When you see the video alone it does not seem like a justifiable
shooting," Herbert said. But he said that consulting with Van Dyke
and experts in the field, he decided the case was "absolutely
defensible.
[to top of second column] |
![](../images/ads/current/richardson_lda_040113.png)
Dean Angelo, president of the local Fraternal Order of Police union,
said he saw the video of the shooting, yet believed Van Dyke took
"action that he believed at that time to be justified."
The case prompted an online threat that closed the University of
Chicago on Monday. Jabari Dean, 21, a student at the nearby
University of Illinois at Chicago, was arrested and charged with
threatening to kill 16 white male students or staff in retaliation
for the shooting of McDonald, federal prosecutors said.
Ten people were arrested for disrupting traffic on Monday, including
Brooks and several seminary students as they knelt to pray in the
middle of LaSalle Street outside City Hall. The protest began with
singing and marching around with empty caskets.
One participant, NAACP College and Youth Director Stephen Green,
said he knew they would be arrested and that they decided "to break
the man's law to uphold moral law for transformation in the city of
Chicago."
Green said up to 300 people took part in the protest, and more were
planned. He said a court date is pending with a possible fine.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Dec/01/images/ads/current/pest_control_bch_092414.png)
Chicago police confirmed that citations were issued and everyone was
released.
(Reporting by Justin Madden and Mary Wisniewski; Writing by Suzannah
Gonzales; Editing by Grant McCool and Cynthia Osterman)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |