Jason Van Dyke shot Laquan McDonald because McDonald threatened him with a knife, Van Dyke told a detective at the scene of the fatal shooting. In a second interview a few hours later, Van Dyke, the Chicago police officer now charged with McDonald’s murder, offered further reasons why he opened fire on the 17-year-old—including concerns that McDonald’s knife could be spring-loaded or could shoot a bullet.
After McDonald fell to the ground, he “continued to grasp the knife, refusing to let go of it,” March’s summary says. McDonald also “appeared to be attempting to get up, all the while continuing to point the knife at Van Dyke.” So Van Dyke kept shooting, emptying the magazine of his semiautomatic, firing 16 times in all. Then he loaded another magazine. But by this time, McDonald “was no longer moving and the threat had been mitigated,” as Detective March’s report puts it.
It’s possible, of course, that someone advised Van Dyke to offer the additional reasons for shooting McDonald. March’s handwritten notes appear to indicate that two Fraternal Order of Police representatives and lawyer Daniel Herbert (who now represents Van Dyke) came to the shooting scene.
Other officers on the scene either corroborated Van Dyke’s and Walsh’s accounts or said they didn’t see what precipitated the shooting.
