The Chicago mayor's office, police and the body that investigates police shootings closely coordinated their actions in the days after a white officer fatally shot a black teenager in 2014, emails released Thursday revealed.
In the letter, which was among about 1,400 emails released by the city on New Year's Eve, Neslund informs Deputy Corporation Counsel Thomas Platt that police dash cam video "confirms that Mr. McDonald did not lunge toward police" which is "contrary to the false statements the city allowed the [police union] spokesman to spin to the media". The victim was carrying a knife but was moving away from officers when he was shot at 16 times and killed.
With protests still raging over a series of fatal police shootings, Mayor Rahm Emanuel vowed Wednesday to reduce the use of deadly force by Chicago police, unveiling a plan to equip every patrol officer with a less- lethal Taser by summer.
Van Dyke, who faces six first-degree murder counts, pleaded not guilty to the charges Tuesday.
The statement said the department will also begin to require every officer who "responds to calls for service" to be equipped with a Taser and trained to use it by June 1, 2016. Protesters point to those killings as evidence of a systemic problem within the police department, while city officials called the incident a "tragic accident".
Quintonio LeGrier, a 19-year-old Northern Illinois University student, and his neighbor, 55-year-old Bettie Jones, died in the December 26 incident.
The fallout prompted the mayor to cut short a family vacation to Cuba. "I have asked that they determine the deficiencies in the current training and determine what steps can be taken immediately to address them".
Emanuel said the cities they examined shared a common tie of having "gone through a change with the Department of Justice".
Emanuel said that any officer involved in a shooting will be put on desk duty for 30 days.
"This case will undoubtedly bring a microscope of national attention to the shooting itself as well as the city's pattern, practice and procedures in rubber-stamping fatal police shootings of African Americans as 'justified'".
"It is essential that they have the right guidance, training, and tactics to ensure the safety of our residents and themselves", Emanuel said.
Pearson says, "The people have no trust in the police".
The Justice Department announced a civil rights investigation of the Chicago Police Department after the city last month released squad-car video of a white officer shooting a black teenager 16 times a year ago.
The ensuing turmoil led Emanuel to fire the police superintendent and create a task force to review police accountability. When they arrived at the building of the caller, they faced a "combative" 19-year-old, Quintonio LeGrier, wielding a baseball bat.
"We want to make sure that our officers are not just operating in either first gear or fifth gear but to recognize the degrees in between, so, they can respond appropriately to each individual situation, where force can be the last option, not the first choice", the mayor said.
Alvarez asks FBI to help in probe of Quintonio LeGrier, Bettie Jones shooting
