Chicago officer awaits sentence in teen’s shooting

UPDATE: A judge has sentenced former Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke to nearly seven years in prison in the 2014 shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. Van Dyke’s attorney, Dan Herbert, said Van Dyke was happy with the sentence that Cook County Judge Vincent Gaughan handed down Friday. Special prosecutor Joseph McMahon, who oversaw the case against Van Dyke, said he believed the sentence of six years and nine months was fair, but the Rev. Martin Hunter, McDonald’s great uncle, called the prison time insufficient. Van Dyke could be released with credit for good behavior after serving half of the length of the punishment, lawyers said.

OUR EARLIER REPORT (1:18 p.m.): A sentencing hearing is underway Friday for a former Chicago police officer convicted of murder in the shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. In October, a jury found Jason Van Dyke guilty of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery in the 2014 shooting.

Video footage released 13 months after the incident sparked protests and led to charges of conspiracy against three other officers who were at the scene of the shooting. Cook County Judge Domenica Stephenson on Thursday acquitted ex-Officer Joseph Walsh, Officer Thomas Gaffney, and Detective David March of conspiring to cover up the shooting on Van Dyke’s behalf. A report attributed to Walsh said McDonald continued to move and was holding a knife after Van Dyke’s initial shots knocked him to the ground, which indicated that he continued to pose a threat to the officer, a scene not captured in the video. Van Dyke shot McDonald 16 times. Stephenson, in her ruling, agreed with the report, an argument that jurors who convicted Van Dyke didn’t accept.

“To say that these men are not guilty is to say that Jason Van Dyke is not guilty. … It is a sad day for America,” said the Rev. Martin Hunter, McDonald’s great uncle.

Van Dyke, his wife, teenage daughter, and other family members were set to testify before another Cook County judge, Vincent Gaughan, at Friday’s sentencing hearing.