Grand jury to look into possible cover-up by Chicago police in Laquan McDonald shooting
CHICAGO _ A grand jury will be impaneled to investigate a possible cover-up by Chicago police in the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald at the request of a special prosecutor appointed in July to investigate the matter.
Patricia Brown Holmes, the special prosecutor, said Monday she has enough evidence to present to a grand jury as she made her request that one be convened.
Judge LeRoy Martin Jr., the presiding judge of Cook County's criminal division who appointed Holmes, said he would convene a special grand jury to hear evidence.
Holmes, a former Cook County judge, later told reporters that a grand jury investigation is the fairest way to handle the case rather than make a charging decision on her own.
Martin named Holmes to look into whether the officers lied to justify the October 2014 shooting of the 17-year-old. Her investigation also could extend to police supervisors who were involved, said the lawyers who had asked the judge to appoint a special prosecutor.
The dashboard camera video of white police Officer Jason Van Dyke shooting the black teen 16 times has caused a firestorm of controversy and led to calls for major reforms and a U.S. Justice Department investigation of Chicago police practices. The accounts of several officers dramatically differed from the video.
The video showed Van Dyke opening fire within seconds of exiting his police SUV as McDonald walked away from police with a knife in his hand, contradicting many of the officers' written accounts that the teen had lunged with the knife. Federal prosecutors also have been looking into possible charges against those officers for many months.
_Chicago Tribune
