Inspector general report shows at least 16 officers involved in cover-up of Laquan McDonald shooting

CHICAGO — An internal report investigating 16 police personnel involved in covering up the 2014 fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald by a former Chicago police officer was released Wednesday after being kept secret for almost three years.

The formerly confidential report, written in 2016 by the city of Chicago’s inspector general, Joseph Ferguson, revealed that several officers committed numerous ethical and internal violations in order to cover up former officer Jason Van Dyke’s shooting of the 17-year-old, including giving false statements “to exaggerate the threat McDonald posed.”

According to the report, Anthony Wojcik, a former Chicago Police Department lieutenant who was at the scene, improperly disposed of three original general progress reports containing detectives’ handwritten notes of the statements three civilian witnesses made the night of the shooting. He then “personally recreated the reports,” before disposing of the original notes, the investigation showed.

The report illustrated a massive internal cover-up that was emblematic of a “code of silence” to protect one another within the Chicago Police Department, as previously documented by the Department of Justice in a separate report.

Navy Vet

Article URL : https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/inspector-general-report-shows-least-16-officers-involved-cover-laquan-n1064401