Despite Video, White Cop Sticks To His Story On Shooting Laquan McDonald

A white Chicago police officer charged with murder in the 2014 shooting of Laquan McDonald testified Tuesday that he opened fire when the black teenager kept advancing toward him while waving a knife, adamantly sticking to his version of events even when confronted with video that showed a different scene.

In a clear but sometimes halting voice, at times fighting back tears, Officer Jason Van Dyke described arriving in his police SUV to find McDonald in a city street, carrying a small knife that the 17-year-old had previously used to puncture the tire of a squad car after officers responded to a report of someone breaking into vehicles. Van Dyke later turned defiant under questioning by prosecutors who pointed out that video of the Oct. 20, 2014 , shooting didn't match his account, telling jurors: "The video doesn't show my perspective."

The video shows Van Dyke exit his vehicle and start firing even as McDonald appears to veer away from police. After the bullets start, McDonald spins and falls to the ground. Van Dyke continues firing, shooting a total of 16 shots. About 10 other officers were on the scene, and prosecutors have stressed that none of them — including Van Dyke's partner — opened fire.

Van Dyke described McDonald as being "without expression," his eyes "bugging out of his head" and looking "right through me." He said McDonald was getting closer to him and was ignoring repeated commands to drop the knife. An autopsy shows McDonald had the hallucinogenic drug PCP in his system.

"His back never once turned towards me," Van Dyke said. "He could have made a decision to turn and walk in the other direction; he could have dropped the knife and ended it right there."

But prosecutors picked apart his story, asking why Van Dyke didn't step out of McDonald's path and pointing out that the video shows Van Dyke actually stepping toward McDonald.

"I know that now, yeah," he said. "Not intentionally. I thought I was backpedaling."

When Van Dyke insisted that McDonald raised the knife across his chest just before the officer opened fire, prosecutor Judy Gleason asked: "Where do you see that on the video?"

"The video doesn't show my perspective," Van Dyke responded.

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I really expect a guilty verdict, nothing less. This was murder and from how everything is unfolding and sounding, it just sounds like this cop was just scared of black people, and even despite the video he's hoping the jury is going to accept his white privilege and find him not guilty, so it's not surprising despite video evidence of him lying under oath he is still sticking to his story.