Jurors view photos of gunshot wounds
CHICAGO: The first gunshot wound shown in the darkened courtroom yesterday traced an ugly red path across the top of Laquan McDonald’s head.
Over the next two hours, Cook County jurors viewed on large video screens photos of all 16 entrance wounds from shots fired by Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke.
‘‘When all the holes are added, it comes to a total of 24 holes on Laquan,’’ Chief Cook County Medical Examiner Ponni Arun kumar testified about all the entrance and exit wounds.
The public attention brought by the number of shots sustained by McDonald eventually pressured City Hall to release police dashboard camera footage of Van Dyke firing all 16 rounds in his gun at McDonald as the teen appeared to walk away from police with a knife in his hand.
The ensuing fallout led to months of protests, political upheaval and a federal civil rights investigation that excoriated the Police Department for a pattern of excessive force and an entrenched code of silence that shielded police accused of wrongdoing.
Van Dyke (40) is charged with two counts of firstdegree murder, 16 counts of aggravated battery and one count of official misconduct in McDonald’s death.
Van Dyke’s attorneys have attempted to paint McDonald as an outofcontrol, violent person who disobeyed police commands to drop the knife. — TCA