Lequan McDonald's Death: Tragic In So Many Ways Pt. 1

During the week of October 19-25, 2014, five black males were killed in Chicago.  One of them happened to be 17-year-old Laquan McDonald who was killed on Monday, October 20th in a hail of bullets discharged from the gun of Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke. The shooting has drawn national attention because of the apparent excessive use of force to stop McDonald, who had a weapon, a knife, not a gun, but a weapon none the less.

This case essentially remained dormant in the public space, because the State's Attorney, Anita Alvarez did not bring charges against Van Dyke for over a year.  Alvarez has stated that she wanted to take time to navigate the legal labyrinth to ensure a first degree murder charge and nothing less in the case against Van Dyke.  However, many legal experts have expressed doubts of Alvarez's claims that a year was needed to ensure that the case met legal standard for first degree murder charges. On the other hand, juries are usually reluctant to second-guess police officers making split-second, life or death decisions in tense situations.

Let me clearly state that this is a very tragic situation.  Laquan McDonald lived a very short and difficult life.  He was a ward of the state.  In his short life, he spent 14 years being shuffled between
the homes of family members and foster homes. According to records from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, he was taken from his mother in 2000 and placed in a foster home after DCFS determined that she was "unable to provide proper supervision." His father was not in his life. His grandmother then took him in, and in 2002, his mother made a successful attempt to regain custody.  But the reunion was short-lived.  Laquan was again removed from his mother's home after DCFS determined that he was being physically abused by her boyfriend.  For the next 10 years, Laquan would live with his great-grandmother until she died in 2014.  He would remain in the home under the supervision of a 25-year-old uncle.

In early 2014, Laquan was arrested for possessing marijuana.  He was placed in juvenile detention for five months, until May of 2014.  But despite all of the instability that this young man had experienced in his short life, he apparently was not ready to just give up and follow in the footsteps of many other youth from similar circumstances.  According to Thomas Gattuso, the principal of Sullivan House High School, an alternative school for at risk teens and young adults, Laquan took the initiative to enroll at the school, regularly earned A's and B's and was on track to graduate at age 19. Gattuso said that Laquan was quick to smile, make jokes and hug his teachers.  With regard to his behavior, Gattuso added that "He never got into any trouble here." It should be noted that while Laquan had no criminal record as an adult, he had several juvenile arrests.

It was just five months after his release from juvenile detention that Laquan would die on the streets of Chicago. Numerous published reports indicate that earlier that night, Laquan was allegedly trying to break into vehicles in a trucking yard. The first two officers responding trailed him, one on foot and the other in a marked vehicle, since he would neither stop nor drop a 4 inch knife that he was carrying and was said to be acting erratically.  After walking several blocks, Laquan stops at an intersection, turns and slashes one of the tires of the police vehicle and then starts hitting the windshield with the knife.  He continues walking, then jogging with the police following him through a Burger King parking lot. They are then joined by two other officers, one of which is Van Dyke. Their vehicle is mounted with a dash cam. They get out of their vehicle and stand roughly 12 to 15 feet from Laquan who is walking in the middle of the street. Van Dyke opens fire.

According to an autopsy report, a small amount of PCP was found in his system. Fast forward to just over a year later.  First degree murder charges against Officer Van Dyke are announced. Laquan's family, who received a $5 million dollar settlement from the City of Chicago months earlier, reportedly did not want the video of the shooting released.  They then release a statement that said in part:

"This is a difficult time for us.  As we have said in the past, while we

would prefer that the video not be released we understand that a court

has ordered otherwise.  We ask for calm in Chicago. No one understands

the anger more than us, but if you choose to speak out, we urge you to be

peaceful. Don't resort to violence in Laquan's name.  Let his legacy be 

better  than that."

Many questions have been raised about what happened that night and what prompted Officer Van Dyke to shoot Laquan 16 times. Was it his failure to submit to police demands to stop and put down his weapon?  Did Officer Van Dyke fear for his life?  Why didn't the other police officers take action to stop Laquan before Van Dyke and his partner arrived? Did Laquan really lunge at officers? Was Officer Van Dyke a crazed racist eager to kill a black youth? Of the numerous other citizen complaints that have made against Van Dyke, how many involved the use of excessive force or the discharge of his weapon? Why is there reportedly a portion of video missing from a camera that was in a nearby Burger King that also captured the incident? These questions will certainly be raised in court, however, they may never be answered to the complete satisfaction of everyone.

Purely out of respect for the life of this young man, I'm going to split this post into two parts.  In part two, I'm going to talk about some other aspects of this tragic case that are for me, in a word, nauseating.