CHICAGO – Four years after shooting 16 bullets at a black teenager, three years after the dashcam video broadcast and three weeks into his murder trial, Jason Van Dyke was suddenly turned into a Chicago patrol officer.

A clerk announced the jury's decision. The judge revoked his link. And Van Dyke, the first municipal officer for about half a century to be found guilty of murder in a shootout on duty, put his hands behind his back as he was handcuffed and went through a hall. hearing in custody.

The scene was a silent coda to the tension that erupted after the video was made public in November 2015. The shocking footage showed Laquan McDonald collapsing to the ground while the officer was repeatedly firing at the camera. teenager who was away from the police. The video provoked a national scandal and placed the country's third-largest city at the center of the debate over police misconduct and the use of force.

The magnitude of the second degree murder conviction was inevitable because Van Dyke left the eyes of his family and relatives of McDonald's.

"This verdict is a validation and a sense of justice for many people in and around Chicago and Cook County … African American communities in our country," said Special Attorney Joseph McMahon after reading the verdict.

The choice of second degree murder reflected the jury's conclusion that Van Dyke believed his life was in danger but that this belief was unreasonable. The jury also had the opportunity to commit first degree murder, which implied that the shooting was unnecessary and unreasonable. A first degree conviction, along with improvements for the use of a firearm, would have required a minimum sentence of 45 years.

Second-degree murder is usually punishable by a sentence of less than 20 years, especially for a person with no criminal background. Probation is also an option. Van Dyke was also convicted of 16 aggravated battery charges – one for each bullet.

A legal expert predicted that Van Dyke would be sentenced to a total sentence not exceeding six years. But as an officer, it will be "a difficult time", perhaps spent in isolation, said Steve Greenberg, who has defended clients in more than 100 murder trials.

McDonald, 17, was carrying a knife when Van Dyke shot him in a dimly lit street where he was surrounded by other agents.

Defense lawyer Dan Herbert called Van Dyke "sacrificial lamb" offered by political and community leaders "to save themselves". He said it was a "sad day for the forces of order" because the verdict tells the officers that they can not do their job.

A spokesman for the McDonald family thanked the prosecutors for initiating a procedure which, he said, revealed that many black lawyers did not think they could be won.

"I can not rejoice because this man is going to go to jail," said McDonald's uncle, Reverend Marvin Hunter. "I saw his wife and father, his wife and daughter did not pull the trigger, I could see the pain in those people, it bothered me that they could not see the pain in us. "

The 12-member jury included only one African-American member, although blacks make up one-third of the Chicago population. The jury also included seven whites, three Hispanics and an American of Asian descent.

The jurors stated that they spent a large part of their deliberations deciding whether to condemn first- or second-degree murder and not an acquittal. They said that Van Dyke's testimony did not help him. One woman said that he "was cheated" and should not have testified. Another said that Van Dyke should "contain the situation, not degrade it".

The names of the jurors were not made public at the trial and were not revealed on Friday during interviews with journalists at the courthouse.

According to testimonials and videos, police were waiting for someone with a stun gun on the teenager when Van Dyke would have arrived. The video, repeated at trial, showed him shooting, even after the teenager remained motionless on the sidewalk.

Prosecutors and defense lawyers clashed over what the images actually proved.

During the closing arguments, Attorney Jody Gleason noted that Van Dyke told the detectives that McDonald had lifted the knife and that McDonald had tried to get up after being hit.

"None of this has happened," she says. "You saw it on video, he invented it."

But Van Dyke and his lawyers maintained that the video did not tell the whole story.

His lawyers portrayed the officer as being scared by the young man who, he knew, had already punctured the tire of a squad car with the knife. Van Dyke testified that the teenager was advancing on him and ignored his screaming orders to drop the knife.

Van Dyke acknowledged that he had approached McDonald's and not the teenager, as he had originally claimed. But the officer maintained the rest of his account.

"The video does not show my point of view," he said.

In his 13 years of police service, Van Dyke has been the subject of at least 20 citizen complaints, including eight alleging excessive use of force, according to a database of reports. from 2002 to 2008 and from 2011 to 2015.

Although he was never disciplined, a jury awarded $ 350,000 to a man who sued for abuse of force. Van Dyke testified that McDonald was the first person he shot at.

To reinforce their thesis that McDonald was dangerous, the defense lawyers pleaded against the teenager, who had been in state custody for most of his life and was found in detention for minors after arrest for possession of marijuana. They also discussed an autopsy showing that he had the hallucinogenic PCP in his system.

Prosecutors pointed out that Van Dyke was the only officer to ever fire on McDonald's.

They called several police officers who were present that night while they were trying to eradicate the "blue wall of silence" long associated with the city's police forces and other agencies charged with the task. ;law application. Three officers, including Van Dyke's associate that night, were accused of conspiring to conceal and lie about what happened to protect Van Dyke. They all pleaded not guilty.

Even before the trial, the case had affected the application of the law in Chicago. The city police superintendent and the county attorney general both lost their jobs: one was sacked by the mayor and the other was ousted by the voters. This also led to an investigation by the Justice Ministry that revealed a "pervasive culture of concealment" and prompted in-depth police reform projects.

A week before jury selection, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced that he would not be applying for a third term, although his office insisted that the case had nothing to do with it. with his decision. He was criticized for having fought until the publication of the video after his reelection in April 2015.

Before the verdict, the city has prepared for the possibility of such events following the publication of the video, with the addition of 4,000 additional officers.

Schools and businesses were preparing for potential disturbances, and residents of the city stopped by midday to listen to the jury's decision. In the end, the response was reduced, with a few hundred demonstrators parading peacefully in the city center in the loop.

The issue of race permeated the case, although it was rarely raised at trial. McMahon told the jurors that Van Dyke knew nothing of McDonald's past when he had met her that night.

What Van Dyke saw "was a black boy walking down the street … having the audacity to ignore the police," McMahon said.

Herbert replied, "The race has absolutely nothing to do with it."