Chicago Officer Who Shot Black Teen To Death Charged With Murder

Police officer, Jason Van Dyke who fatally shot black teenager, Laquan McDonald last year October 20, 2014, has been charged with first-degree murder on Tuesday, November, 2015. The death of this young man has been described as heinous, unjustified, cold-blooded and illegal.

The officer who received 17 civilian complaints last year, turned himself in at the Cook County Courthouse this morning.

Undated photo of Laquan McDonald

Last week, a court ruled that the dashcam footage of the 17-year-old's fatal encounter with officer Van Dyke be released by the end of Wednesday. The video has been released and has caused a public outrage in the city of Chicago. What's so horrible about the whole story is that Laquan who was seen in the video, walking away from the cops, was shot 16 times and most of the shots were fired while he had already hit the ground. He also received two bullets in the back.

Officer Jason Van Dyke

"Clearly, this officer went overboard and he abused his authority, and I don't think use of force was necessary," prosecutor Anita Alvarez said at a news conference after Van Dyke's initial hearing.

Police had said the teenager advanced towards officer Van Dyke with a knife, but the true story of what went down is entirely different. The police officer was 100% guilty. The accused officer even said Laquan did not only threaten him with a knife, he also slashed at tires and windshields of a patrol car.

Fortunately, this release of the graphic footage of Laquan Mcdonald's murder came at a time of heightened nationwide scrutiny of police use of lethal force against members of the Black and Latino communities.

The city of Chicago had already reached a $5M settlement, which was to be paid in April even if the family of Laquan didn't file a lawsuit. All to prevent the video from seeing the light of day.

At the court ruling, officer Jason Van Dyke was denied bail. If convicted, could serve up to 20 years to life in prison.

Watch the video below and tell us what you think about the trending police brutality.

This video was uploaded on YouTube by FOX 10 Pheonix