Sheriff’s Officer Could Be Key Witness In Laquan McDonald Case

By Mae Rice in News on Dec 11, 2015 4:10PM

A Cook County Sheriff’s officer arrived at the scene of the Laquan McDonald shooting a minute after McDonald was shot, although he wasn't mentioned in the resulting police reports, the Tribune reports.

Officer Adam Murphy’s presence on the scene was uncovered by the FBI, whose officers interviewed him this July. Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart only learned of Murphy’s involvement when the Tribune called his office Thursday night.

According to Dart’s aide, Cara Smith, Murphy says he may have witnessed McDonald’s last moments. She told the Tribune:

"He bent down and said 'Hang in there buddy,' " Smith said. She said the officer told his superiors Wednesday night that he heard "an audible exhale" and believed that McDonald died while he was kneeling next to the teen, and that no other police officers were close to him at the time.

On a DUI patrol near Midway earlier that night, Murphy had seen police cars speeding by and, although he wasn’t listening to his radio, followed along to help, the Tribune reports.

Murphy and another Cook County Sherriff’s officer present, Officer Jeff Pasqua, were not mentioned in Chicago police officers’ accounts of the night. Both men have been called to testify to the federal grand jury investigating the McDonald case, the Tribune reports.

Nothing about the lack of paper trail here suggests wrongdoing on the officers' part. According to Tribune reporter Peter Nickeas, they handled the situation pretty typically. (And that entire Twitter thread is full of interesting perspectives on this case.)

However, Murphy and Pasqua’s testimony—Murphy's especially—could be key to the McDonald case. The Chicago police officers’ account of the shooting, in which Officer Jason Van Dyke shot 17-year-old McDonald 16 times, doesn’t gel with the video footage of the scene (or at least, the video footage that hasn’t gone missing).

Testimony from witnesses outside the department could shed new light on what happened, and illuminate cracks in the police officer’s united front, which, in accordance with their union rules, they had 24 hours to prepare before they were interviewed.