Chicago — Detective George Hernandez will not be charged with any files after he shot dead a 25 year-old man in the state of Illinois.
The shooting at the hand of Detective Hernandez happened on October 12, 2014. Hernandez shot dead a 25 year old man named Ronald Johnson, who was father of five. Said shooting occurred eight days before another shooting against a civilian named Laquan McDonald, which set off nearly two weeks of protests as the city was forced by court order to release the disturbing police dashcam video of the confrontation. McDonald, 17, was gunned down by officers, and in his case, Officer Jason Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder.
Anita Alvarez’s office presented the case from her point of view in a rather lengthy appearance. They played 911 calls, audio of police dispatch traffic, animation of the incident and the release of police dashboard video and an enhanced image of a gun made by a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) crime lab.
“Based on the totality of the evidence, no criminal charges will be filed against Officer Hernandez because a crime cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt,” Ms. Alvarez said.
Johnson’s family claims that the police planted a weapon at the scene. To this, Alvarez replied that DNA evidence on the weapon recovered at the scene of the crime, interviews with a friend of Johnson who was also at the scene and replays of police radio minutes after the shooting of Johnson suggests he did in fact have a gun.
Alvarez said the grainy video does back up Hernandez’s contention that he was acting in a reasonable manner to defend himself.
Assistant State’s Attorney Lynn McCarthy told a news conference Monday that Johnson did not obey several orders from police officers to drop his weapon.
The facts are that Johnson was at a party and left with three other men when their car was hit by several bullets, including one that shattered a window.
The car circled back to the site of the party, and the driver told authorities that he heard Mr. Johnson cock a gun in the back seat. Multiple 911 calls were made by people close regarding the shots fired, and several police vehicles joined the scene.
Johnson left the car and was spotted by officers, who began to chase him, as his description matched the one of the original shooters. He was stopped and an officer attempted to arrest him. However, he knocked the officer down after a struggle and continued to run.
Police officers reported yelling repeatedly for Johnson to stop and drop his weapon, but he continued up the street. At that point, Office Hernandez arrived in an unmarked car. He and several other officers exited the vehicle, and Mr. Hernandez fired at Mr. Johnson as he ran away.
In both the Johnson and McDoanld shootings, authorities were forced to release dash-cam footage to the public. However, in the McDonald case, a judge ordered city leaders to release the video. In the Johnson case, Mayor Rahm Emanuel reversed the city’s decision to keep the footage private and ordered its release.
Source: Inside Edition