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Minutes after being convicted of murder, Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke stood up in the packed hall of Cook County Court to be taken into custody. He had already said goodbye to his wife and family.
Tired but calm, the veteran patrol officer put his hands behind his back as his lawyer, Daniel Herbert, hit him in the shoulder. As the sheriff's deputies escorted Van Dyke out of the courtroom, Herbert motioned for him to lift his thumb.
Thus one of the most followed lawsuits in Chicago's history ended abruptly.
A jury on Friday convicted Van Dyke of second degree murder and 16 counts of murder with a firearm in the death of 17 – year – old Laquan McDonald, marking the staggering end of the day. a racially-charged affair that shook the city. The video of the shooting, fired by the police, was made public by court order three years ago.
Van Dyke was the first Chicago police officer in half a century to be convicted of murder for a shooting in service. He faces a minimum of six years in prison when he is sentenced by Judge Vincent Gaughan. The jury acquitted him of one head of professional misconduct.
The jurors told reporters that most of them felt that Van Dyke was guilty when they had started their deliberations, but they were initially divided about whether he should be sentenced for murder on the first day. or second degree. In the end, after deliberating for about seven and a half hours, they agreed on a second degree murder, concluding that Van Dyke was scared when he shot his gun, but that his fear was unreasonable.
Around the city, some protesters gathered in public places to follow the verdict. On the CTA Blue Line, runners packed their downtown cars while listening to the verdict on their cell phone for everyone to hear.
In front of the town hall entrance on LaSalle Street, more than two dozen protesters formed a narrow circle, leaning forward to listen to the decision.
Some were hiding their mouths and others were preparing anxiously, hands on their heads. A murmur arose in the muffled group: "I'm scared. I'm scared for my city, everyone. "
After several minutes, the crowd was excited after the announcement of the first conviction. Others, like Keena Carson, organizer and resident of the Bronzeville neighborhood in Chicago, began to cry and be moved.
"We just felt that all those years of work since the release of the video was worth it," Carson said. "Like everything organized and on the street, it was worth it. It was worth it – for once.
The sister of the murdered teenager, Tariana, was not in the courtroom for the verdict, but then announced on her Facebook page that the jury's decision had brought her "so many tears of joy". His next message was to his brother.
"I love you brother," wrote Tariana, 18 years old. "I miss you so much, I sleep better because I know your killer is not happy on the street."
In Gaughan's fifth floor courtroom, Van Dyke's solemn expression did not escape when the verdict was read. His wife, Tiffany, cried over his belief. The murdered teenager's great-uncle, Reverend Marvin Hunter, sat on the other side of the audience hall, also cried.
The spectators remained silent, although some could be seen praying.
The judge had warned that any aggression on the part of those present would lead to their arrest. Deputy Ministers lined up at every corner of the crowded audience room.
Gaughan ordered bail of Van Dyke at the request of Special Prosecutor Joseph McMahon, who said the officer was at least six years in prison.
"He is now before this court as a recognized criminal," said McMahon, Kane County attorney, charged with handling the lawsuits because of conflicts of interest between prosecutors in Cook County. .
Gaughan will likely set Van Dyke's conviction date when he returns to court on October 30.
McMahon told reporters later that he considered the second-degree murder conviction as appropriate justice for McDonald's and his family. He said he spoke to McDonald's mother, Tina Hunter, after the verdict.
"It's a tough day for Tina Hunter," he said. "She must continue to relive the worst moment of her life again and again. … I do not think Tina will ever recover from this injury. "
Van Dyke's lawyers have vowed to appeal the judge's refusal to move the lawsuit out of Cook County because of extensive publicity before the trial.
"It 's really a sad day for the forces of order," Herbert said. "We've all heard about the Ferguson effect. I can only imagine that if the police think they can never fire against someone who acts the same way as Laquan McDonald, when they are about ten meters away from him, what we will have is that the police will become security officers. They will not go out and confront anyone. "
The verdict comes after a historic three-week lawsuit that reversed the scenario of most murder cases in the Leighton courthouse. Prosecutors have questioned the credibility of the police, who are usually their most reliable witnesses.
FULL COVER: Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke convicted of Laquan McDonald's second-degree murder
Van Dyke himself broke with the usual protocol of police officers facing charges of wrongdoing, choosing to let a jury decide its fate instead of asking the judge to evaluate the evidence at the time. A trial. His decision to testify for his own defense was also a rare move, especially for a murder accused.
The charges against Van Dyke centered on the video of the dashcam describing the moments that preceded the shooting of October 20, 2014 – a sequence broadcast around the world for almost three years. The graphic images sparked protests and political unrest and led to a major federal civil rights investigation into the systematic ill-treatment of citizens by Chicago police, particularly in minority communities in the city.
READ MORE: Murder in second degree versus first degree murder, explained »
Throughout the trial, prosecutors pointed to how the other officers involved in the incident acted with restraint, just letting McDonald 's move away while waiting for rescue police officers to go out of their way. a taser arrive on the scene. In fact, an officer dragged McDonald's for about one kilometer across several blocks, never threatening to shoot. Van Dyke, however, opened fire just six seconds after stepping out of his squad's car with his gun fired. The car with the Taser arrived at the scene 20 seconds after stopping firing.
Five police officers from Van Dyke in Chicago testified for the prosecution, including Joseph Walsh, his partner that night, who was granted immunity while he was waiting for him. To be tried for separate criminal charges, alleging that he had helped to conceal the details of the murder to justify it.
The jury heard dueling medical examiners who had reached very different conclusions about the death of McDonald's, as well as two police force use experts who disagreed on whether Van Dyke was justified in opening fire.
READ MORE: Statement by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson following Jason Van Dyke's verdict »
Sometimes witnesses called on one side ended up helping the other.
Walsh, for example, corroborated Van Dyke's version of the facts in his testimony as a prosecution witness, going as far as standing up from the witness stand to show the jury how he had seen McDonald's rise. the knife in the shoulder in a threatening motion before his partner kicked out.
Perhaps more importantly, a defense-paid psychologist said that shortly before Van Dyke's arrival at the scene, he had told his partner that he might have to shoot the offender.
"Oh my God, we're going to have to shoot the guy," Van Dyke recalls in an interview with psychologist Laurence Miller, according to Miller's testimony.
The civilian witnesses also provided key testimony. A truck driver whose 911 call triggered police intervention that night testified to the defense that McDonald had attempted to stab him when he had caught her in the process to break in trucks. Two eyewitnesses – a father and his son – stated for the prosecution that McDonald's had not threatened the officer with threatening before he was shot.
The father, Jose Torres, the latest prosecution witness in his speech, said that all the shots fired at McDonald "annoyed me".
"Why do they always shoot him while he was on the ground?", He recalls if he had asked aloud at the time.
But the case was largely in the video of the dashcam that described the filming as it unfolded, as well as the testimony of Van Dyke in which he tried to explain his actions.
The video, broadcast dozens of times in front of jurors during the three weeks of the trial, showed Van Dyke and his partner heading for the scene as McDonald's headed south in the middle of Pulaski Road, a folding knife of 3 inches. The two jumped with their guns fired.
Six seconds after Van Dyke got out of the car, he took a step towards McDonald's – reducing the distance to about 12 feet while the teenager continued to walk at an angle from him – and opened fire. McDonald turned and fell to the pavemen.
Van Dyke kept firing for at least 12 seconds while McDonald was lying on the street, emptying the 16 rounds in his body, prosecutors said.
Van Dyke told the jury that he had been forced to make a decision in a split second to shoot McDonald's because the teenager posed a threat and ignored the command to drop the knife.
But in cross-examination, he was not able to explain how he could have seen McDonald lift the knife a few moments before opening the fire while the video did not show it.
"What I know now and what I thought at the time are two different things," said Van Dyke.
Tony Briscoe from Chicago Tribune contributed.
MORE: Laquan McDonald's troubled life and ephemeral potential | Meet the jury, the judge and the lawyers | How did the shooting go? | Listen to the podcast "16 shots" | Lawyers competing in the lawsuit have a very different style | Van Dyke expresses for the first time since filming | Judge known for his intelligence, his sharp tongue and his discreet style | Video of the shoot | Full Coverage Tribune
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