Federal prosecutors said Monday they would not pursue criminal charges against a former Chicago police officer who served about three years in state prison after being convicted of second-degree murder in the 2014 shooting of Laquan McDonald, a black teenager.
In a statement Monday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois said that after consulting Mr McDonald’s family, it decided not to charge former officer Jason Van Dyke with the murder of the 17-year-old boy, whose murder spotlight on police brutality, prompted changes in police procedures and had political repercussions.
Prosecutors said the bar to convicting Mr. Van Dyke on federal charges would have been much higher than that on state charges. They would have to prove that he knew deadly force was excessive and that his actions “were not the result of error, fear, negligence or poor judgment,” the statement said.
They added that a second round of charges against Mr Van Dyke “would diminish the important results already achieved”. They noted that a federal judge would need to review Mr. Van Dyke’s previous sentence and his good behavior in prison.
Daniel Herbert, Mr Van Dyke’s lawyer and former police officer, did not immediately respond to emails or calls on Monday.
In October 2014, Mr Van Dyke, who is white and was then with the Chicago Police Department, responded to a report that a person broke into vehicles and found Mr McDonald with a knife but walked away from police. Mr. Van Dyke shot the boy 16 times even after Mr. McDonald collapsed in the street.
The shooting was caught on dashboard camera video, but the city didn’t release it until 13 months later, following a court order. The footage sparked protests across the city denouncing both the cover-up and the brutal death of Mr. McDonald.
Mr Van Dyke was found guilty in a state court in 2018 of one count of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated assault with a firearm. He was the first Chicago police officer in almost 50 years to be convicted of murder in an on-duty shootout.
He was released for good behavior in February after serving less than half of an 81-month sentence. While it’s fairly common for prisoners to be released early if they behave decently, some Chicago activists were outraged. They are urging federal authorities to file civil rights lawsuits against Mr. Van Dyke to redress what they say was a lenient sentence.
Mr McDonald’s great-uncle, Rev Marvin Hunter, did not immediately respond to emails or phone calls Monday, but he said in February he had not protested Mr Van Dyke’s early release.
“Justice has been condemned from our point of view,” he said at the time. “It wouldn’t benefit anyone in this country if Jason Van Dyke went back to prison and got 100 or 1,000 years.”
But Ja’Mal Green, 26, a former Chicago mayoral candidate who has spoken out about the killing of Mr. McDonald’s for several years, said he wanted federal authorities to press charges against the former officer.
“The fact that a white man could pump 16 bullets into a little black boy and only serve three years in prison? That’s not justice,” Mr Green said Monday night.
As a result of the killing of Mr. McDonald, federal authorities investigated the Chicago Police Department and issued a Consent Decree ordering hundreds of police reforms. Chicago police officers now carry body cameras on duty.
The police commissioner and several police officers were fired for the cover-up, which may also have been one of the reasons why Rahm Emanuel, the former mayor, did not seek a third term.