Chicago Cop Who Fatally Shot Laquan McDonald Pleads Not Guilty

Jason Van Dyke. Image by Getty Images

By Reuters December 29, 2015

A Chicago police officer had pleaded not guilty to murder charges in the shooting of a black teenager, an incident caught on video that has led to protests and calls for the resignation of Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

In a Chicago courtroom, officer Jason Van Dyke formally pleaded not guilty Tuesday to six charges of murder and one charge of official misconduct in the 2014 death of Laquan McDonald, 17.

Emanuel, the city’s first Jewish mayor, is set to return from Cuba later Tuesday. He was on a family vacation that was to last until Saturday but announced Monday he was cutting it short after the shooting deaths of two more black Chicagoans by his police force.

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