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4 Chicago police fired for alleged police shooting coverup
CHICAGO, July 19, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Four officers accused of lying about the
circumstances around the fatal shooting of a black teen have been fired by
the Chicago Police Board.
The 2014 killing of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, which was captured on
police video camera, sparked months of protests and became emblematic of
longstanding police abuse in America’s third-largest city.
A jury in October convicted a white police officer, Jason Van Dyke, of
second-degree murder for firing 16 bullets into McDonald, most of which
struck the teen after he fell to the ground.
The Police Board said that Sergeant Stephen Franko and three other
officers had exaggerated the threat posed by McDonald in order to cover for
Van Dyke, according to a decision handed down Thursday.
“Their conduct is antithetical to that expected and required of a sworn
law enforcement officer, who at all times has a duty to act with honesty and
integrity and to accurately and completely report their observations,” the
board said in a statement.
McDonald’s 2014 murder laid bare a deep distrust of government
institutions among African Americans.
The city’s police chief and lead prosecutor both lost their jobs after the
shooting, one in a series of fatal encounters between US police and African
Americans, who formed the Black Lives Matter movement in response.
BSS/AFP/RY/1501 hrs