Chicago cops testify against colleague
Attorney: It’s ‘a huge moment’
CHICAGO — The Chicago police officers clearly do not want to be in court testifying against a colleague accused of murder, with one of them so uncomfortable he couldn’t bring himself to point to the man on trial, something witnesses are routinely asked to do.
But one after another — willing or not — officers who were at the scene the night of Oct. 20, 2014, when white officer Jason Van Dyke emptied his gun into black teenager Laquan McDonald, are being called to testify, as prosecutors seek to chip away at the “blue wall of silence” long associated with the city’s police force and others across the country.
None of the officers has criticized Van Dyke in testimony over the first two days of his trial, but each has bolstered the contention by prosecutors that what Van Dyke did was “completely unnecessary.” Van Dyke’s attorneys say he feared for his life and acted according to his training.
Those testifying in Van Dyke’s murder trial have included his partner that night, Joseph Walsh, one of three officers indicted on charges that they conspired to cover up what happened to protect Van Dyke. While video released more than a year after the shooting shows McDonald veering away from officers, Van Dyke and others on the scene initially said the 17-year-old had lunged at them with a knife.
Walsh, who is no longer on the force, acknowledged Tuesday that he “could have” fired, before answering “Yes” to the question of whether he chose not to. But he also defended his partner’s actions, saying he was “confident officer Van Dyke took necessary action to save himself and myself.” And he maintained that he saw McDonald raised his right arm to swing it “in our direction,” even though video of the shooting that played as he spoke doesn’t show that. He said that he had a different vantage point.
Another witness, officer Joseph McElligott, was so reluctant to testify that prosecutors finally gave up trying to get him to point to Van Dyke.
According to some experts, Walsh’s testimony — and that of other officers — represents a shift in the landscape for a police force that the U.S. Justice Department in January 2017 described as having a “pervasive cover-up culture.”
“The fact that you have officers forced to testify is a huge moment,” said attorney Matt Topic, who waged a successful legal battle to force the city to release the video of the McDonald shooting in 2015.
Van Dyke is the first Chicago police officer in decades to be charged with murder for an on-duty shooting, He’s pleaded not guilty to all charges.