Justice? Chicago Supt. Eddie Johnson Requests Firing of 5 Officers for Laquan McDonald Killing
Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson filed termination requests for five officers involved in the 2014 shooting of Laquan McDonald.
The charging documents were filed on Tuesday and they revealed that officers Jason Van Dyke, Daphne Sebastian, Janet Mondragon, Ricardo Viramontes and Stephen Franko face administrative charges based on their handling of the McDonald shooting.
Officer Van Dyke is the officer who actually shot McDonald and faces an additional murder charge by Cook County prosecutors. His trial is expected to begin next year.
Earlier this year, Johnson recommended ten officers be fired after the dash cam footage revealed that McDonald was shot 16 times even though he posed no threat to the officers. Two of the officers retired and the police department disagreed with the firing of one, which dropped the total number of officers up for termination down to seven.
Since we first reported that Johnson recommended seven officers be fired, one more officer has retired and another resigned after the charges were filed on Tuesday.
The additional charges the officers face include mishandling the Department’s new recording equipment, false reporting, giving misleading statements and reporting actions by McDonald that were disproven by the tape.
The names of the other officers who resigned and retired have not been released by the Department.
This new recommendation is expected to be the beginning of the Chicago Police process of cleaning up the department and moving forward in the McDonald case.