The Chicago officer who fatally shot Ronald Johnson III as he ran from police will not be charged, prosecutors announced on Monday before the public release of video of the shooting.
Cook County state’s attorney Anita Alvarez announced her decision not to prosecute officer George Hernandez after showing dashboard camera footage of the confusing scene that preceded and followed the shooting of the 25-year-old, in October 2014.
The footage, which had no audio, showed the flashes from Hernandez’s gun as Johnson ran away from officers.
Prosecutors allege Johnson was armed at the time of the shooting, a claim his family disputes.
Assistant state’s attorney Lynn McCarthy showed an image enhanced by an FBI computer forensics laboratory, which she said showed that Johnson was carrying a gun in his right hand when he was shot by Hernandez. Police witnesses told investigators a gun was recovered from Johnson’s body after the shooting.
Responding to a reporter’s question, Alvarez did not state explicitly that the video showed that Johnson was armed.
“I’m looking at this, and it appears to be an object in there,” she said.
The video shown on Monday did not include the physical struggle that allegedly preceded the shooting, during which Johnson is said to have thrown another officer to the ground.
Michael Oppenheimer, the lawyer for the family of Ronald Johnson III, was not impressed by the press conference, which he called a “27-minute infomercial”.
The state’s attorney’s office reviewed the findings of the City of Chicago Independent Police Review Authority (Ipra), the civilian agency which investigates police shootings and allegations of misconduct.
Ipra’s head investigator resigned on Sunday evening, hours before US attorney general Loretta Lynch announced a Department of Justice investigation into the Chicago police department.
Critics have faulted the agency’s investigations for rarely concluding that police used excessive force. According to a Chicago Tribune investigation, of 409 police shootings the agency has reviewed between October 2007 and September 2015, just two were found to be unjustified and both involved off-duty officers.
Alvarez said on Monday she had “concerns” about Ipra, and criticized the length of time the agency spends on investigations of shootings.
Alvarez added that her office had shared the video in the Johnson case with the FBI, which had declined to investigate the shooting.
The DoJ investigation announced by Lynch came after the release of video of the police shooting of Laquan McDonald. Alvarez charged Jason Van Dyke, the officer who shot Laquan – also in October 2014 – before the release of the video spurred protests around the city.
Police chief Garry McCarthy was subsequently fired.
Activists have called for an overhaul of the city’s leadership. The police department also released the initial report following the shooting, which includes accounts that contradict the video footage.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel was expected to address the issue of Chicago police accountability in a news conference on Monday afternoon. He has also called a special session of the city council for Wednesday, to address aldermen on the issue of Chicago policing.
