The dashcam footage of the shooting of unarmed teenager Laquan McDonald by Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke was “intentionally destroyed,” according to maintenance documents first obtained by DNAinfo.
Officers tampered with microphone antennas, stashed microphones in glove compartments and removed batteries to keep their devices from functioning properly, according to the DNAinfo Chicago report.
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Police officials last month blamed the absence of audio in 80 percent of dashcam videos on officer error and “intentional destruction,” DNAinfo said.
The investigation comes as the dashcam footage was released as a result of a judicial order stemming from a lawsuit brought by a freelance journalist. The video footage shows 17-year-old Laquan McDonald being shot 16 times by Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke.
Van Dyke was immediately charged with first-degree murder but was later freed on bail.
A week later, as protests of police practices grew, Mayor Rahm Emanuel fired Police Superintendent Garry F. McCarthy, saying he “had become an issue rather than dealing with the issue.”
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Chicago police shot and killed 70 people in a five-year period ending in 2014—more than any other of the nation's 10 largest cities.
Among those most affected by the use of force by police are youth of color, according to a recent report by the Chicago-based organization We Charge Genocide. Although Blacks make up only 32.3 percent of Chicago’s overall population, from 2009 to 2013 three-quarters of those shot by police were Black.
The high-profile killings of unarmed young Black men at the hands of police have sparked a nationwide debate and protests across the country.
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