Chicago Cop Who Fatally Shot Laquan McDonald Pleads Not Guilty
Jason Van Dyke. Image by Getty Images
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.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
