Former Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke, who was convicted of the murder of 17-year old Laquan McDonald, was granted early release from prison. He walked free on Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022.
Van Dyke was sentenced in 2019 to seven years for second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery with a firearm but only served three years. In Illinois, individuals sentenced to prison are eligible for statutory good time.
In October 2014, Van Dyke responded to a call of a Black teenager breaking into vehicles. The police dashcam video shows Van Dyke arriving at the scene and within seconds shooting McDonald 16 times. The video of the murder was not released for a year, but that changed in November 2015 because of a lawsuit against the Chicago Police Department.
McDonald’s murder set off widespread protests and was part of a disturbing and continuing trend of unwarranted police killings of Black men across the country.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot released a statement on the day Van Dyke was released affirming that his short stint behind bars may have been a disappointment, but noted, “significant progress” as the former police officer’s conviction represents, “the first officer in more than half a century to be convicted of a crime purportedly in the line of duty.”
“I understand why this continues to feel like a miscarriage of justice, especially when many Black and Brown men get sentenced to so much more prison time for having committed far lesser crimes,” Lightfoot said.
