photo credit: FeyginFoto // Shutterstock
Chicago Police officer Jason Van Dyke has been found guilty of second-degree murder in the killing of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. Dyke has also been found guilty of 16 counts of aggravated batter. He has no bond and sentencing has been scheduled for October 31st.
Dyke says he shot the teen in self-defense after McDonald lunged at him with a knife, but the incident caught on video shows that McDonald was walking away from the police, not charging them.
Dyke was initially charged with first-degree murder. The jurors were informed that they were able to consider second-degree murder. Jurors on the case were 8 women and 4 men, 7 of them white, one black, 3 hispanics and one Asian.
Van Dyke is the first Chicago police officer to be charged with first-degree murder since 1980.
Written by Clarke Jones