Restaurant video missing footage of Chicago police shooting

By Mary Wisniewski
CHICAGO, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Chicago officials on Friday
released video from a nearby Burger King restaurant taken on the
night a police officer fatally shot a black teen but it was
missing the time period when the 2014 shooting occurred.
The missing footage has led to allegations of tampering with
evidence and of a police cover-up in the case, which have been
strongly denied by police and prosecutors.
Last week, the city released police car dashboard camera
video that showed Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke shooting
17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times on Oct. 20, 2014. On the
same day the video was released, Van Dyke was charged with
first-degree murder.
Protests erupted afterwards in the country's third largest
city, culminating in the firing of Police Superintendent Garry
McCarthy by Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday.
Critics of the mayor and of the local prosecutor have
complained that it took too long for charges to be filed.
High-profile killings of black men at the hands of mainly
white police officers in U.S. cities have fueled protests over
the past two years and prompted a national debate about the use
of excessive force by police.
Officials had gathered video evidence on the night of the
shooting from nearby businesses on the city's southwest side,
including a Burger King QSR.TO restaurant.
The footage, released in response to a public records
request, showed a gap of 86 minutes, including the time when
McDonald was shot. The tape has no sound and shows policemen in
the Burger King after the shooting, with one working at a
computer monitor.
Cook County prosecutors have said an investigation had ruled
out tampering. The Chicago Sun-Times cited a source close to a
Federal Bureau of Investigation probe as saying the Burger King
security video system often broke down and had frequent gaps.
There are no other major gaps in the video from the
restaurant that day, according to footage viewed by Reuters.
The city plans to release dashboard camera video of another
fatal police shooting of a black man by a white police officer
from October 2014. It was not immediately known when the video
of Ronald Johnson's shooting would be released.
Also on Friday, about 50 protesters, including civil rights
leader Jesse Jackson, marched around City Hall demanding an
independent investigation of the case.
"We need to get some justice here," said Ron Wilson, a
minister from suburban Hazel Crest. "There's no reason for
holding on to those tapes for 13 months."