Illinois state attorney for Cook County Anita Alvarez announced Monday that prosecutors in Chicago would not be filing criminal charges against George Hernandez, the Chicago police officer who fatally shot Ronald Johnson III in October 2014. Dash-cam footage reportedly confirms police claims that 25-year-old Johnson wielded a gun.
Police say that Johnson pointed the gun at them before Hernandez shot him in the back. Johnson's mother says that her son was shot in the back while running away from the officers.
The incident took place just a week before the fatal shooting of black 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, for which Officer Jason Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder in November. As the Chicago Tribune notes, "one major distinction between the two cases is a dispute in Johnson's shooting over whether he was armed with a gun."
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Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel says that dash-cam footage of the Johnson shooting will be released this week. The U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday that it has launched a civil rights investigation into the Chicago Police Department.
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