A police report about the shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald released late Friday by the Chicago Police Department differs dramatically from footage of the killing made public last month.
While the highly controversial tape shows an unarmed McDonald stumbling away from police officers, the report published Friday reportedly suggests he was moving toward the officers while wielding a knife.
Several officers backed the story told by Jason Van Dyke, who has been charged with first degree murder for shooting McDonald 16 times, by giving statements that indicated Van Dyke fired on McDonald for fear of his life.
Chicago officials fought against the release of the dashboard-camera video for months before a judge forced the city to make the footage public.
Van Dyke was charged with murder the same day the video was released even though more than a year had passed since the shooting.
Protesters have called for the resignation of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel in the wake of the controversy. In an attempt to quell unrest over the video, Emanuel dismissed his police chief shortly after the video’s release.
The embattled mayor has called for an independent review of the police department to determine whether there was any deliberate attempt to cover up the nature of the shooting.
The new police documents made public Friday revealed Van Dyke had said McDonald was “swinging the knife in an aggressive, exaggerated manner.” The accused officer also said the teen “raised the knife across chest,” which does not appear to be the case in the video.
Another officer reportedly backed Van Dyke’s account by telling investigators that “McDonald fell to the ground but continued to move and continued to grasp the knife, refusing to let go of it.”
While Sen. Bernie Sanders has called for the resignation of any political officials found to have delayed or suppressed the release of evidence in the McDonald case, Democratic rival Hillary Clinton has stood by Emanuel.
