Former Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke was released from prison on Thursday after serving less than half of a nearly seven-year sentence for murdering Laquan McDonald, a Black 17-year-old.
Van Dyke, who is White, became the first Chicago police officer convicted of murder in half a century when a jury convicted him of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery, one for each bullet that struck McDonald, in October 2018.
A judge sentenced him in early 2019 to six years and nine months in prison, but he was released on Thursday after serving three years and four months for good behavior. Van Dyke was only sentenced for the most serious charge, not the 16 aggravated battery counts.
Former Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke and his attorney Daniel Herbert listen during Van Dyke’s sentencing hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building, Friday, Jan. 18, 2019, in Chicago, for the 2014 shooting of Laquan McDonald.
(Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune via AP, Pool)
Video of the shooting, which was played repeatedly at trial, shows McDonald walking in a street as several officers surrounded him in October 2014.
Officers were waiting for someone with a stun gun when Van Dyke shot McDonald 16 times, killing him. Van Dyke was carrying a pocket knife at the time.
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The city of Chicago refused to release the dashcam footage until more than a year later, when a judge ordered it to be released in November 2015, leading to mass protests.
Demonstrators link arms in solidarity as they protest the shooting death of black teenager Laquan McDonald by a white policeman and the city’s handling of the case in the downtown shopping district of Chicago, Illinois, November 27, 2015.
(Reuters/Jim Young)
Rahm Emmanuel, who was the mayor at the time, fired the police superintendent and decided not to run for reelection himself after coming under criticism for his handling of the case. Chicago’s top prosecutor was also voted out of office.
Van Dyke was a 13-year veteran of the force but racked up at least 20 citizen complaints while on duty, eight of which were for alleged excessive force.
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Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot called Van Dyke’s sentence and release “a supreme disappointment” on Thursday, but cited the “significant progress” that has been achieved since the shooting, including the creation of a police oversight body and a consent decree to oversee police reform.
“I understand why this continues to feel like a miscarriage of justice, especially when many Black and brown men get sentenced to so much more prison time for having committed far lesser crimes,” Lightfoot said Thursday.
Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke looks on during his murder trial as a monitor displays a scene from a police vehicle dash cam video, moments after the shooting death of Laquan McDonald.
(REUTERS/John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune/Pool via REUTERS)
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NAACP President Derrick Johnson wrote a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland this week, urging him to bring federal civil rights charges against Van Dyke.
“Given the egregious nature of his crime, the NAACP believes that at a minimum, the murderous officer should be charged with a federal civil rights violation under Title 18, U.S.C., Section 242 — Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law,” Johnson wrote.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.