REPORT:
Due to bizarre behavior, a call to the police was made regarding a 17-year-old male. The reports were in regard to a young man walking around with a knife and attempting to break into vehicles. Upon arrival, officers reported that during their first attempt to confront the 17-year-old that he sliced a tire open. The responding officers, of which there were nine in total after a request for taser back up, ordered the 17-year-old to drop the knife in his possession. The 17-year-old began to walk away and received a shot in his back, which witnesses to the shooting stated that he made a "full spin" upon impact of the bullet. He still had the knife in his possession when he was motionless on the ground. There were 16 additional shots taken on the 17-year-old due to the continued possession of the knife. The teenager died at the site. When the knife was catalogued as evidence, which is stored as it is found, the knife was closed. The duration of this event from the moment of officer arrival to the final gun shot, approximately 30 seconds or less had passed.
INVESTIGATION:
There were nine officers present at the time of the event but it was determined that only one officer took the 17 shots taken on the 17-year-old male. In the autopsy, it was determined that there was PCP in the teenager's blood at the time of death. It was also discovered that, despite the presence of so many officer vehicles, a large number of the recording devices present in the patrol cars were faulty or not working at the time of the incident. It was reported that some of the equipment appeared to be intentionally made non-functional ahead of the event that transpired. However, there were 5 videos of the event that were retained for evidence. The initial police report including the officers accounts and eye witness accounts had conflicting information. The autopsy indicated that of the 17 shots fired, that 16 of them hit the 17-year-old male. Nine of those shots were in his back, having been fired after he was already on the ground. The additional locations of bullet wounds include: neck, left arm, right arm, right left, and left side of the scalp. As for the review of events, these were conducted by the Independent Review Police Authority. Additional investigations were completed by the State Attorney and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
RESULTS:
Criminal reviews were completed and it was determined that the officer that show the 17-year-old would go to trial for the event described. At the start of the trial, the charges included six counts of first degree murder. The official guilty charges include: intent to kill/injure with a firearm, strong probability to kill/injure with a firearm, intent to kill/injure discharge firearm, intent to kill/injure discharge firearm proximately, and strong probability to kill/injure discharge firearm proximately. However, the officer plead "not guilty" and was eventually found guilty of second degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery (to match the 16 bullets that entered the teenager's body). A massive civil case settlement for wrongful death was made for the family of the teenager, which was decided without video evidence being made available to the family and their attorneys. Three additional officers present at the time of the event described were tried for cover-up crimes but were all acquitted. No further consequences resulted for these three officers.
DISCLAIMER: The events described are actually the events that occurred resulting in the death of Laquan McDonald. He was killed by Jason Van Dyke who was not found guilty of first degree murder for the death of an innocent teenager – an innocent child.
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