Three longtime police officers in Chicago have been charged with conspiracy, Obstruction Of Justice, and official misconduct related to a 2014 fatal police shooting, that caused the death of Laquan Mcdonald, a black teenager. Two of those charged on Tuesday, June 27 have already left the police force. However, none of them are directly held accountable for the death of the teenager as they did not fire the shot that killed him. The three people charged are former Detective David March, former Patrol Officer Joseph Walsh, and Patrol Officer Thomas Gaffney.

Three police officers charged for black teenager’s death

The three accused did not fire at McDonald but their crime was that they tried to shield Jason Van Dyke, the officer who fired the lethal shot that night. After the shooting, the three accused tried to protect Jason so that he would not be investigated further and so that no further action would be taken against him. It is also claimed that the trio presented false accounts about McDonald’s behavior during the night of the shooting and even went so far as to sidestep interviewing three crucial witnesses in order to protect Jason.

The officers are currently awaiting arraignment next month and have not been taken into custody. Their lawyers could not be reached for comment.

The new police superintendent, Eddie Johnson, claimed that his department has co-operated fully with the prosecutors and would continue the same, so that such an incident is never repeated again.

Officer Jason Van Dyke was charged with murder in 2015 after a dashboard video contradicted his account of the incident. No trial date has been set for Van Dyke yet and he still maintains that he is not guilty of those charges.

He claimed to have fired the shots fearing for his life. Van Dyke has been on unpaid suspension from the force since the investigations started.

What really happened?

On that night, police had received several 911 calls about a teenager trying to steal cars with a knife in his hand and many squad cars were deployed to apprehend this guy.

Van Dyke and the three charged officers claimed that upon seeing the police, McDonald menacingly approached them with the knife in his hand, which led to Van Dyke firing and fatally wounding the victim.

However, the dashboard camera footage showed something completely different. It revealed that although McDonald was clutching a knife, he tried to move away from the police officers as they arrived on the scene. Van Dyke though opened fired and kept on shooting even after McDonald lay crumpled on the street.