By Dan Whitcomb
(Reuters) – Federal prosecutors said on Monday they would not bring charges against the former Chicago police officer convicted in state court of killing Black teenager Laquan McDonald in 2014, a videotaped shooting that touched off protests in the city.
The decision to stand down on a federal prosecution of Jason Van Dyke was made in consultation with McDonald’s family and weighed the greater difficulty in securing another conviction, U.S. Attorney John Lausch said.
“The federal law presents a very high bar – more stringent than the state charges on which Mr. Van Dyke was convicted,”
Lausch said in a written statement.
Van Dyke’s criminal defense attorney, Daniel Herbert, could not be reached for comment by Reuters on Monday.
The former police officer was found guilty of second-degree murder and aggravated battery in 2018, marking the first time an on-duty Chicago police officer was convicted for the killing of a Black person.
Van Dyke was sentenced to seven years in state prison but released earlier this year.
Police confronted McDonald shortly before 10 p.m. on Oct. 20, 2014 after responding to reports the 17-year-old was carrying a knife and breaking into vehicles.
McDonald had refused to drop the knife and was walking away from officers when Van Dyke fired a total of 16 shots at him. The incident was captured by cameras on police squad cars at the scene and by a surveillance camera from a nearby Burger King.
McDonald’s death touched off a string of protests in Chicago and elsewhere by activists who saw it as the latest example of police violence against young Black men.
The city of Chicago paid a $5 million settlement to McDonald’s family the following year.
(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
