City Releases Burger King Footage—With 80 Minutes Missing—From Laquan Shooting

By Kate Shepherd in News on Dec 4, 2015 4:45PM

The Burger King on South Pulaski Road, via Google Streetview

The mystery of the missing Burger King surveillance footage the night Laquan McDonald was shot still hasn't been solved, but the city has finally released some footage from the restaurant that night.

The video was obtained by the Tribune via a Freedom of Information Act request. The released film includes 12 camera angles from inside and outside the fast food restaurant on Oct. 20, 2014, but nothing from the infamous 80 minute gap in the footage, which includes the time McDonald was shot by police officer Jason Van Dyke.

Before the gap starts at 9:18 p.m., it looks like business as usual at the Burger King. When the video continues at 10:39 p.m. after the shooting, "a police officer in a bulletproof vest is seen sitting at a desk in front of a computer monitor in the back of the restaurant. Another officer is seen walking around behind the seated police officer."

But Chicago police and Cook County prosecutors still say that there's no evidence the Burger King footage was tampered with, despite the suspicious gap.

The Tribune received security footage from other businesses close to the site of the shooting at 41st Street and South Pulaski Road, including Dunkin' Donuts and the Greater Chicago Food Depository.

There's no audio in any of the videos but a conversation between police officers reviewing the Dunkin' Donuts footage was captured on the store's surveillance video.

The surveillance footage was not released to the media last week because law department officials were still working on preparing it for release, they told the Tribune.