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Witness contradicts police account of shooting of black teen Laquan McDonald
Source: Associated Press
Witness contradicts police account of shooting of black teen
By DON BABWIN
November 29, 2018
CHICAGO (AP) — A man who witnessed a Chicago officer fatally shoot black teenager Laquan McDonald testified Thursday that police waived him away without questioning him that October 2014 night and didn’t even bother to take down his name.
Jose Torres, testifying in the trial of three officers accused of lying to protect the white officer who shot McDonald, offered an account that contradicts what the officers wrote in their reports. Torres said he decided to come forward with his version of events after he heard a spokesman for the police union on television telling reporters that McDonald “was lunging” at Van Dyke with the small knife the 17-year-old was carrying in his right hand.
“I told my wife at that moment, ‘They’re lying,’” he testified. “I told her I had to say something. ... It’s eating away at me (and) or the next few days, I couldn’t sleep.”
Torres’ testimony that McDonald was not lunging at Van Dyke matches video that was played repeated at Van Dyke’s trial last month in which the officer was convicted of second-degree murder.
-snip-
By DON BABWIN
November 29, 2018
CHICAGO (AP) — A man who witnessed a Chicago officer fatally shoot black teenager Laquan McDonald testified Thursday that police waived him away without questioning him that October 2014 night and didn’t even bother to take down his name.
Jose Torres, testifying in the trial of three officers accused of lying to protect the white officer who shot McDonald, offered an account that contradicts what the officers wrote in their reports. Torres said he decided to come forward with his version of events after he heard a spokesman for the police union on television telling reporters that McDonald “was lunging” at Van Dyke with the small knife the 17-year-old was carrying in his right hand.
“I told my wife at that moment, ‘They’re lying,’” he testified. “I told her I had to say something. ... It’s eating away at me (and) or the next few days, I couldn’t sleep.”
Torres’ testimony that McDonald was not lunging at Van Dyke matches video that was played repeated at Van Dyke’s trial last month in which the officer was convicted of second-degree murder.
-snip-
Read more: https://apnews.com/465995ba18144e8c8e0b608b069be9b1