Rahm Emanuel.
Christian K. Lee / AP
A white Chicago police officer on Tuesday is expected to face charges for the fatal shooting of a black teen in 2014, the Cook County State's Attorney's office confirmed to BuzzFeed News.
A spokesman for the SA's Office said that official charges will be formally read at Van Dyke's bond hearing at noon. She could not comment on the charges against the officer.
The expected charges come as city officials are set to release the graphic, and potentially explosive, dash cam video of the incident.
"It happened pretty quickly."
The city had refused to release the video, arguing that doing so could jeopardize the ongoing investigation. However, a judge last week ordered the Chicago Police Department to release the video no later than Wednesday, sending city officials scrambling to work with civic leaders and appeal for public demonstrations and reaction to be peaceful.
In a six-minute call with a coalition of community leaders that the Chicago Tribune was privy to, the city's mayor, Rahm Emanuel, said that while he had not seen the video, "what happened here is wrong."
"There is no justification and it's profoundly hideous, in my view," Emanuel said, according to the Tribune. "And it's a shock to your conscience of what happened, and it should not have happened."
A report from the Cook County medical examiner's officer obtained by The New York Times showed that some of the bullets that hit McDonald — who police say was holding a knife — entered from his back.
Since Van Dyke joined the Chicago PD in 2001, his personnel file showed 18 complaints, including allegations of using racial slurs, excessive force and illegal arrests, Fox 32 reported. The complaints were dismissed after internal investigations. However, in 2007, a motorist won a $350,000 judgment in federal court over Van Dyke's use of excessive force, according to the Fox 32 report.
The judge's order came after Chicago-based freelance journalist Brandon Smith filed a lawsuit against the police department in August for its refusal to release the video.
Citing discrepancies between the official version of the incident and eyewitness accounts, as well the footage seen by attorneys for the McDonald family, Smith argued that Chicago police had violated the Freedom of Information Act by refusing to release the video after taking "repeated bad faith extensions of time to respond" to his multiple requests over two months.
Journalist Brandon Smith, left, and activist William Calloway
Charles Rex Arbogast / AP Photo
In April, the Chicago City Council approved a $5-million settlement with the family, the terms of which prohibit attorneys from releasing the dash cam video.
Michael Robbins, a lawyer for the McDonald family, told BuzzFeed News that his clients were not looking forward to the "very graphic and disturbing" footage being made public. However, Robbins, who has seen the video, said it was important that the public "learn the truth of what happened."
It is also important to correct the misinformation issued by the Chicago police union after the incident, Robbins added, including that Van Dyke was being attacked and lunged at by McDonald.
LINK: Chicago City Council Approves $5.5 Million In Reparations For Police Torture Victims
On Oct. 20, 2014, police responded to a 911 call about a knife-wielding man trying to break into vehicles in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood. An autopsy report determined that McDonald was high on PCP at the time.
According to police, McDonald refused to drop his folding knife and walked or jogged away from them. At one point, the teen pounded at the window of a squad car and punctured its tire with his knife, authorities said.
Lacking Taser guns, officers on the scene requested backup to help detain and arrest McDonald.
The dash cam video then allegedly shows that Van Dyke started firing the 16 rounds at McDonald when he was walking away from the officer at a 45-degree angle, Robbins said.
"He did not approach or threaten the officer when he was shot," Robbins said. "At no point before he was shot did he face the officer."
According to Robbins, there were also around six other officers, some in their cars and some on foot, who witnessed the shooting.
"It happened pretty quickly," he said.
Journalist Brandon Smith, left, and activist William Calloway talk to reporters on Nov. 19.
Charles Rex Arbogast / AP
Van Dyke remains on administrative leave pending the investigation by a joint team of the FBI, the United State Attorney's Office in Chicago, and Cook County state's attorney, The Times reported.
Emanuel said in a statement after the judge's order that the city would release the video to the public by Wednesday in the hopes of bringing the investigation to a close, and so "Chicago can begin to heal."
The video is also widely expected serve as a setback for Emanuel's administration which has faced criticism for not doing enough to address Chicago's stubborn crime rate and incidents of police use of force.
"Police officers are entrusted to uphold the law, and to provide safety to our residents," Emanuel said. "In this case, unfortunately, it appears an officer violated that trust at every level."
Laquan McDonald
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