By all eye-witness accounts 17-year-old Laquan McDonald was unarmed when Chicago police officers shot and killed him.
But since the shooting occurred, police apologists have asserted that the surveillance video of the incident would clear everything up. But instead of clarifying what happened, the footage actually appears to have been tampered with.
Once released, it was quickly noticed that the footage had 86 minutes deleted from the security camera video.
The camera was from a Burger King restaurant which is located less than 100 yards from where the shooting occurred. That placed it in a prime location to catch the fatal shooting of 17-year old Laquan McDonald.
McDonald was shot a total of 16 times back on the night of October 20, 2014. A full nine of those rounds hit him in the back, according to the Medical Examiners report.
The missing footage from the tape runs from 9:13 p.m. to 10:39 p.m..
Heres where it gets interesting: McDonald was shot at approximately 9:50 p.m.
That means the Chicago Police removed the moments leading up to, during and after the shooting of this innocent, unarmed teen.
Police say they had received a threat about a man with a knife. Thats when they began to tail McDonald, who they assumed must be that man.
After unloading on him, police claimed McDonald posed a very serious threat to their safety.
The eye-witnesses and the family attorney arent buying it.
One witness, this witness told us this was an execution. Thats his word, attorney Jeff Neslund said.
Jay Darshane, the Burger King District Manager, said that four to five police officers showed up after the shooting, wearing blue and white shirts. They entered the restaurant and demanded the video. They were given the password to the computer and they were left alone to review the footage. After that, they left and the video had 86 minutes missing from it.
An investigator from the Independent Police Review Authority came by the next day asking to review the security footage. But Darshane told them that the police had already been there the night before.
We had no idea they were going to sit there and delete files, Darshane explained. I mean we were just trying to help the police officers.
The video might not have captured the shooting itself, but it would have shown everything leading up to it. The actual shooting itself was, however, captured on a police dashboard camera. They police arent letting us see that just yet for some reason.
Where was this on the video footage if that is the case? Without that video, doesnt it seem reasonable that the third party eye-witnesses are to be trusted when they say this was an execution of an unarmed man?
Watch the local report from NBC 5 Chicago
(Article by Jackson Marciana)