Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke rubs his eyes as he testifies at his murder trial on Tuesday, October 2, 2018 in Chicago, for the shooting death of Laquan McDonald.(Photo: AP)

CHICAGO (AP) – The Chicago police officer's murder trial charged with the controversial killing of Laquan McDonald, whose murder nearly four years ago sparked protests and political turmoil in the country's third largest city, is scheduled for Thursday. .

Officer Jason Van Dyke shot the black teenager 16 times during the October 2014 incident that had been captured on a police video, a chilling video that put the already tense relations of the police in the African-American community.

On court order, the city was forced to release the police video – which seems to show that McDonald's away from the police when Van Dyke opened fire – 400 days after the incident. The initial resistance of local leaders to the broadcast of the video fueled allegations that police and the administration of Mayor Rahm Emanuel had attempted to conceal the shots.

Van Dyke, charged with first degree murder, with 16 counts of aggravated murder and official misconduct, faces a life sentence if found guilty.

Van Dyke's defense team insists that the officer acted to preserve the lives of his comrades and became a political scapegoat during a difficult time for law enforcement in America.

The incident is one of many large-scale police clashes involving black men and women in recent years that has sparked a broader national conversation about policing tactics in predominantly African communities. US.

During the trial, which lasted nearly three weeks, the officer's defense team also pointed out that Mr. McDonald was suffering from mental illness and that he had PCP in the blood at the time of his death. He had a long history of violent behavior, drug use, and was doing well. erratically in the moments and hours before filming.

A pharmacologist who testified on behalf of the defense stated that the PCP in the McDonald's system and the lack of psychotropic medication prescribed to the teenager was a volatile combination. The officers of the Juvenile Detention Center remembered violent and profane cries in the teenager while he was in detention. Agent Leticia Velez, another witness at the scene, said that McDonald's looked "upset".

The police met McDonald after receiving calls that a young man matching the description of the teenager had entered vehicles and stolen radios from a truck on the southwestern side of the road. city. The trucker who initially confronted McDonald, Rudy Barillas, testified that McDonald – who was armed with a small knife – had attacked him. Barillas said however that he was able to repel the teenager by throwing his mobile phone and pebbles at the teenager.

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Officers who arrived in the area eventually spotted the teenager who was handling the knife, but McDonald's did not obey repeated calls to abandon the weapon and continued to spawn a way in the streets of the city. At one point, McDonald used the knife to pop the tire of a police car.

Van Dyke and his partner had just had coffee at a nearby 7-Eleven, when they heard radio calls about what was going on and headed for the stage.

As they headed for McDonald's, Van Dyke asked his partner, Joe Walsh, why the officers had not fired on McDonald's since his attack, said Laurence Miller, a forensic psychologist who had assessed Van Dyke on the subject. order of the defense. Van Dyke also stated during the psychological assessment that he was reminded to have mentioned to Walsh: "Oh my God, we're going to have to shoot the guy."

Moments after arriving at the scene, Van Dyke jumped out of his car and opened fire on McDonald's. The officer fired within six seconds of leaving the vehicle and, after about 1.6 seconds, McDonald was on the ground, never to get up again. Van Dyke shot another 12.5 seconds, emptying his clip.

Van Dyke, who testified on his own behalf, said that he had continued to shoot McDonald's because the teenager was trying to get up. He also stated that McDonald had raised his waist knife over his shoulder just before firing – a move that does not appear in the police video that was shown to several times to the jurors throughout the trial.

"The video does not show my point of view," said Van Dyke during cross-examination.

While the jury deliberated, the Chicago police were preparing for demonstrations.

Reverend Michael Pfleger, a Catholic priest and activist, spoke this week to social media to call on Chicagoers to "CLOSE" the city if the jury does not condemn Van Dyke.

"No matter what less than a CONVICTION, the next day, Chicago should close its doors … No one should go to work, to school, to any shop … .a complete shutdown," he said. writes Pfelger.

William Calloway, an activist and plaintiff in a lawsuit that forced the city to broadcast the video, also called for peaceful protests if Van Dyke was acquitted. "We want people to get up," Calloway said.

Even before McDonald's shooting, police department relations in the African-American community had been strained by a long history of police brutality and allegations of brutal tactics in low-income and minority communities in the city. Chicago has borrowed approximately $ 709 million to pay settlements for police misconduct cases between 2010 and 2017, according to a report from the Action Center on Race and the Economy.

A Justice Department report from last year also revealed that Chicago agents had used nearly 10 times more force than in cases involving black suspects than against white suspects.

Reverend Gregory Livingston, a pastor who has led several protests in the city to highlight concerns over law enforcement in Chicago, said the Van Dyke trial was about "the conflict between Chicago and the Chicago Police Service ".

"What is symbolic is the uneven application of justice that has existed in Chicago in the black community," Livingston said. "So, even if he's a policeman, what needs to happen here for the black community to have a sense of justice is that no one seems to be above the law."

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