Chicago cop speaks out about shooting
For the first time in 4 years, he talks about death of a 17-year-old
CHICAGO — In the hours after fatally shooting Laquan McDonald, Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke returned to his home and headed for the shower.
Van Dyke could not have known all that would happen over the next 13 months — that video of the shooting would be released publicly, that protests and firings and a Justice Department investigation would ensue, that he would be the first Chicago police officer in decades charged with murder for an on-duty shooting.
In that moment, the married father of two just knew that he killed a 17-year-old boy who had been walking down the street with a knife.
“I remember coming home and … just sitting down in the shower until the water went cold, and even then I couldn’t get out,” Van Dyke told the Chicago Tribune.
In his first interview in the nearly four years since the shooting, Van Dyke spoke with the Tribune Tuesday at his lawyer’s downtown offices. He would not discuss the shooting or its aftermath.
Instead, he suggested he was a political scapegoat and decried “the bandwagon of hatred” on social media.
With jury selection set to begin next week, he acknowledged a desire to challenge the image many paint of him as a racist, trigger-happy cop who was indifferent to taking the life of a troubled 17-year-old.
Van Dyke appeared uncomfortable in the spotlight, often pausing for long periods and struggling for words in an interview tightly controlled by his attorneys and the public relations strategist hired by his defense team. His lawyers requested questions be submitted in advance, would not allow the conversation to be recorded on video and interrupted some questions to instruct Van Dyke not to answer.
On occasions, including as he described his fear of a lengthy prison sentence, he stopped to wipe away tears.