Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke’s lawyers told jurors Monday that Laquan McDonald was on a “wild rampage” through the city the night he died. But twice, as testimony got underway in the Van Dyke’s murder trial, he watched as a fellow officer said the threat McDonald posed on Oct. 20, 2014, did not prompt them to use deadly force, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. One contradicted a previous claim that McDonald raised his arm toward Van Dyke “as if attacking” Van Dyke. Prosecutor Dan Weiler asked officer Dora Fontaine if she saw McDonald “raise his arm as if he was attempting to stab anyone.” Fontaine said simply “no.”
The comments from the two officers were among the more striking moments on the first day of evidence in a trial that has few surprises to yield given the years of intense scrutiny of the shooting. The testimony could be damaging to Van Dyke. Officer Joseph McElligott testified that he and and another officer answered a call, saw McDonald, and “told him to show me your hands.” McElligott said McDonald, who was 15 feet away from him, “took his hands out of his pockets, and in his right hand, he had a knife.” The officers followed McDonald as they waited for a Taser. Defense attorney Randy Rueckert noted that McDonald ran away toward a Burger King where there were trucks and people. Rueckert asked McElligott whether he thought he could open fire in that direction. “Yeah, it wouldn’t be smart,” McElligott said.