CHICAGO _ Former Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke was sentenced to 6} years in prison Friday for the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, closing one of the most racially fraught and socially significant chapters in recent Chicago history.
After a daylong hearing, Judge Vincent Gaughan sentenced Van Dyke only on the second-degree murder conviction, finding that it was the more serious crime and the 16 aggravated battery convictions should "merge" into it for sentencing purposes.
That decision means Van Dyke will serve only half of the sentence _ less than 3{ years in prison _ if he earns credit for good behavior.
In his remarks, Gaughan said it was easy to see the effect that Van Dyke's crime had on his family and McDonald's.
"That's the shame _ the families are suffering a tremendous amount," he said. "It's just so senseless that these acts occur because you can see the pain on both sides. This is a tragedy for both sides."
In fashioning his sentence, Gaughan said the law required him to consider the most serious charge Van Dyke was convicted of _ which common sense dictates is second-degree murder, not aggravated battery.
"Is it more serious for Laquan McDonald to be shot by a firearm or is it more serious for Laquan McDonald to be murdered by a firearm?" said Gaughan, explaining his reasoning.
It was a key decision not only because the aggravated battery counts came with mandatory minimum 6-year prison terms but also because second-degree murder allows for good-time credit, meaning Van Dyke will only have to serve half of the sentence.
If Van Dyke had been sentenced for the aggravated battery convictions, he also would have had to serve 85 percent of that sentence, not half as with the second-degree murder.
The highly anticipated sentencing came with added tension one day after Cook County Judge Domenica Stephenson acquitted three Chicago police officers of all charges alleging they conspired to shield Van Dyke from scrutiny in McDonald's killing.
Rev. Marvin Hunter, great uncle of McDonald, expressed disappointment over the sentence but said the fact that a Chicago police officer was going to prison for shooting a black teen represented progress.
"If they sentenced him to one minute, it's a victory," he said. "It sends a strong message."
He and many activists who spoke to reporters after the sentence was announced described it as lenient. Hunter said the video showed the true facts of what happened to his great-grandson.
"Clearly this was a murder," he said. "The whole world knows it and saw it."
He urged peace.
"This is a historic moment for us. I know a lot of people are angry but this is a victory," he said. "We have a million miles to go, but it must start with a first step. And we took that first step today."
Special prosecutor Joseph McMahon did not receive close to the punishment he sought for Van Dyke, but he told reporters that he still felt that justice had been served.
"I understand the sentence is not exactly what the McDonald and Hunter families wanted," he said. "But the sentence, like the verdict, does hold the defendant accountable."
McMahon said McDonald's mother, Tina Hunter, was in the courthouse watching the proceedings but did not want to be in the courtroom. She left the building before the sentence was announced, and McMahon said he called her with the judge's decision.
"It was extremely difficult," McMahon said of the conversation. "She has had to re-live her son's murder again and again."
