New videos show Chicago cop pursuing teen before shooting
New videos obtained by ABC 7 Chicago show Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke pursuing Laquan McDonald before Van Dyke shoots the black teenager on Pulaski Road in Chicago.
Van Dyke, who is white, and his partner were parked in a convenience store lot on Oct. 20, 2014, when a call came in and they responded, ABC 7 reports. Police were responding to a call of car burglaries.
In a newly obtained video recorded from inside Van Dyke's SUV recorded by his dashboard camera, McDonald, 17, is seen crossing right in front of his vehicle, carrying what appears to be a knife. The SUV, in which Van Dyke was a passenger, is seen rolling over the lawn outside a Burger King.
The video puts Van Dyke on the trail of the teenager about 30 seconds earlier than first thought.
At this point in the video, the vehicle emergency lights had been turned off. That should also have switched off the dash cam, ABC 7 reported, but Van Dyke's camera continued recording, allowing his police car to be seen pulling up to the scene where McDonald is walking down Pulaski Road. Van Dyke is seen on another video, the first one released Tuesday, shooting McDonald.
The dashboard cameras are supposed to record audio, but during the McDonald incident, none did, ABC 7 reported.
A Chicago police official said Wednesday that was because the batteries in the dash cams had been installed facing the wrong direction, which disables the audio part of the recorder, ABC 7 reported. The police department says officers responsible for maintaining their dashcams are being retrained on installing the batteries, ABC 7 reported.