Jason Van Dyke, the white Chicago police officer facing murder charges for shooting and killing black teen Laquan McDonald in 2014, was involved in a controversial 2005 case that is expected to be settled Wednesday, the city of Chicago Department of Law told CNN.
Emmanuel Lopez, 23, was shot 16 times by several Chicago police officers in 2005, and after a decade-long legal battle, the Lopez family will settle with the city for $2.2 million, Department of Law spokesman Bill McCaffrey said Tuesday.
According to the city’s lawyers, Lopez ran over and pinned an officer under his vehicle. Four of the five police officers on the scene fired their weapons, hitting Lopez 16 times.
The fifth officer, according to the law department, did not fire his weapon because he felt he would endanger the lives of other officers on the scene.
Van Dyke was the first responding officer in the Lopez shooting after the incident.
His role was to gather details about the shooting from the officers involved, according to the Chicago law department.
Van Dyke gave his notes to the detectives in charge of investigating the officer-involved shooting.
The Cook County States Attorney didn’t file any charges against the police officers. The investigation from the Independent Police Review Authority, IPRA, is still pending.
The Lopez family attorney is not commenting until after the settlement.
Alderman Proco “Joe” Moreno tells CNN affiliate WLS he isn’t satisfied that it took 10 years for a resolution.
“You’ve got to keep the pressure on, because the first thing that people say is, ‘they’re not telling the truth, it’s a criminal, he was drunk, he was driving’…you’ve got to keep pushing,” Moreno said.
“It could have been more costly to our taxpayers,” Alderman Ariel Reboyras told WLS. “We still have some pending issues with the officers, and that needs to be addressed.”