CHICAGO _ Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke was convicted Friday of second-degree murder in the death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, marking a stunning end to a racially tinged case that roiled the city when now-infamous police dashboard camera video of the shooting was released three years ago by court order.
Van Dyke is the first Chicago police officer in half a century to be found guilty of murder for an on-duty shooting. He faces a minimum of six years in prison when he's sentenced by Judge Vincent Gaughan.
The jury deliberated for about 7 { hours before finding Van Dyke guilty of second-degree murder instead of the first-degree charges for which he was indicted.
The veteran officer was also convicted of all 16 counts of aggravated battery for each shot he fired at McDonald. The jury, however, acquitted him of a single count of official misconduct.
The verdict comes after a landmark trial that featured testimony over 10 days by 44 witnesses, 24 called by the prosecution and 20 by the defense.
The three-week trial flipped the script of most murder cases at the Leighton Criminal Court Building with prosecutors questioning the credibility of police officers who typically serve as their most trusted witnesses.
Van Dyke himself broke from normal protocol for police officers facing charges of wrongdoing, opting to have a jury decide his fate instead of asking the judge to weigh the evidence in a bench trial. His decision to testify in his own defense was also rare for a building where most criminal defendants _ especially those charged with murder _ invoke their right to remain silent.
The charges against Van Dyke centered on the dashcam video depicting the moments leading up to the shooting on Oct. 20, 2014 _ footage that has been played around the world for nearly three years. The graphic images sparked protests and political upheaval and led to a sprawling federal civil rights probe into the systemic mistreatment of citizens by Chicago police, particularly in the city's minority communities.
The case has long been racially fraught because Van Dyke is white and McDonald was black. Prosecutors wasted no time making that an issue at trial even though the charges did not specifically allege race was a factor.
In his opening statement, special prosecutor Joseph McMahon said Van Dyke knew virtually nothing about McDonald before he fired except he "was a black boy walking down the street ... having the audacity to ignore the police."
Van Dyke's attorneys, meanwhile, said the case had nothing to do with race, arguing the shooting was a clear-cut case of self-defense against an out-of-control, violent teen who was high on PCP and ignoring police commands.
In his closing argument, Herbert chastised prosecutors for trying to insert race into the case.
"When you don't have evidence, you use argument," Herbert said.
Later in his argument, however, Herbert made two references that suggested McDonald's appearance did play a role in the shooting.
"If Laquan McDonald did not appear to be some kid whacked out on PCP acting really bizarrely, if this was a kid in a Boy Scout uniform just walking down the street with a knife, and Jason Van Dyke shot him, yeah, it probably wouldn't be justified," Herbert said at one point.
He also likened McDonald to a monster in a horror movie with Van Dyke playing the role of the monster's prey hiding in the bushes.
"When that monster suddenly stops and turns and looks right at that victim in the bush, I think I said that's when the music starts to play," Herbert said. "That's when the filmmakers are like, 'OK, I got 'em right now.'"
Throughout the trial, prosecutors highlighted how other officers involved in the incident seemed to be operating with restraint, content to let McDonald walk away while they waited for backup cops with a Taser to arrive at the scene. One officer, in fact, trailed McDonald on foot for about half a mile over several blocks, never threatening to shoot. Van Dyke, however, opened fire just six seconds after stepping out of his squad car with his gun drawn. The car with the Taser arrived at the scene 20 seconds after he stopped shooting.
Five of Van Dyke's fellow Chicago police officers testified for the prosecution, including Joseph Walsh, his partner that night who was granted immunity from prosecution while awaiting trial on criminal charges alleging he helped cover up details of the killing to make it appear justified.
The jury heard from dueling forensic pathologists who came to very different conclusions about McDonald's death as well as two police use-of-force experts who disagreed on whether Van Dyke was justified in opening fire.
At times, witnesses called by one side wound up helping the other.
Walsh, for example, backed up Van Dyke's version of events during his testimony as a witness for the prosecution, even stepping from the witness stand to demonstrate for the jury how he saw McDonald raise the knife to his shoulder in a threatening motion before his partner fired.
And a psychologist paid by the defense testified that in the moments before Van Dyke had arrived on the scene, he told his partner that he might have to shoot the offender.
"Oh my God, we are going to have to shoot the guy, " Van Dyke recalled saying during an interview with psychologist Laurence Miller, according to Miller's testimony.
Civilian witnesses also provided key testimony. A truck driver whose 911 call sparked the police response that night testified for the defense that McDonald tried to stab him when he caught him breaking into trucks. Two eyewitnesses _ a father and son _ testified for the prosecution that McDonald made no threatening movements toward the officer before he was shot.
The father, Jose Torres, the prosecution's final witness in its case in chief, said all the shots fired at McDonald "upset me."
"'Why the f--- are they still shooting him when he was on the ground?'" he recalled himself asking out loud.
But the case largely boiled down to the dashcam video that depicted the shooting as it unfolded as well as Van Dyke's testimony in his own defense in which he tried to explain his actions.
The video, played dozens of times for jurors over the three-week trial, showed Van Dyke and his partner pulling up to the scene as McDonald walked south in the middle of Pulaski Road, holding a three-inch folding knife. As their car got to about 20 feet from McDonald, Van Dyke opened the passenger door for a brief moment before Walsh pulled up farther down the street. Both jumped out with their guns drawn.
Six seconds after Van Dyke exited the car, he took a step toward McDonald _ closing the distance to about 12 feet as the teen continued to walk at an angle away from him _ and opened fire. McDonald spun and fell to the pavement, his body making only small movements as more bullets appeared to strike him.
Van Dyke continued firing for at least 12 seconds while McDonald lay prone in the street, emptying all 16 rounds into his body, prosecutors said.
In a rare move for a criminal defendant in Cook County, Van Dyke took the witness stand and told the jury that he was forced to make a split-second decision to shoot McDonald because he posed a threat and ignored commands to drop the knife.
Van Dyke grew emotional when he described how he saw McDonald raise the knife across his chest with a wild look in his eyes as the teen was walking toward him, saying McDonald turned his body toward him and raised the knife across his body up to his shoulder. His voice wavering and jaw clenching, Van Dyke paused before saying softly, "I shot him."
Van Dyke repeatedly contradicted what can be seen on the dashcam video, including his testimony that he tried to knock McDonald over with his car door before getting out, that McDonald raised a knife at him before he fired and that he continued to fire only because the teen was trying to get up with the knife in his hand.
Van Dyke also faltered at times under cross-examination, unable to explain how he could have seen McDonald raise the knife when the video doesn't show it.
"What I know now and what I thought at the time are two different things," Van Dyke testified.
