STATE OF ILLINOIS

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COUNTY OF COOK

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF COOK COUNTY
COUNTY DEPARTMENT - CR!MINAL DMSION
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PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF Il.LINOIS
vs.
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JASON VAN DYKE

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NO. 15-1278:23

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.' ( 4. 2015
·_ . '. J. l'i •.f

PEOPLE'S FACTUAL PROFFER
IN SUPPORT OF SETTING BOND

·NOW COME the People of the State· of Illinois, by and through their
Attorney, State'~ Attorney of Cook County, AN1TA ALVAREZ, through · her
Assistant William G. Delaney, and hereby present their factual proffer in support of
setting bo_:p.d.
I.

INTRODUCTION:

Section 5/110-5 of the Illinois Code of Criminal Pr<lcedure sets forth criter.ia
relevant to determining tb.e amount of bail and conditions of release. 725 ILCS
5/110~5. The information used by the Court in its findings with regard to setting
the a:rnount of bail J:nay be presented b:y way of written proffer based upon reliable
information offered by the State. 725 ILCS 51110-5.
Jason Van Pyke ("Defendant'') is charged by w~y of Complaint for
Preliminary Examination with the felony offense of First Degree Murder ,('720· ILCS
5/9-1). Upon conviction, defendant faces .a sentence of 20 years to natural life in the
Illinois Department of Corrections.

II.

DEFENDANT:

Jason Van Dyke, of Chicago, Illl:n,ois. is 37 years old and has been ~mployed
by the Chicago Poli'c~ Department ("CPD''} as a police officer since 2001.
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 III.

THE FACTS:

The Cook County State's Attorney's Office, the United States Attorney's

Office,, the Independent Police Review Auth.o rity ("IPRA'') and. the Fede:ral Bureau
of Investigation ("FEr') investigated the incident which .revealed the following facts.

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On Monday, October 20, 2014, defendant was on-duty as a uniformed patrol
officer working the 9::00 p.m. to 6':00 a.m . .shift in CPD's Bth District with a partner
("Officer A"). Officer A was the driver, and defendant the passe,nger, of the marked
CPD Chery Tahoe {Beat 845R) to which they were assigned that night. At
approximately 9:57 p.in.1 Defendant shot and killed Laquan · McDonald
("McDonald"),
a 17-year-old man, on south Pulaski Road near 41st Stre~L ___ -.... - -~---___ _
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The circumstan~s lea,ding up to the shooting began at 9:47 p.m. when a CPD
dispatcher radioed to 8th D~trict Beat 815R that a citizen was holding a male (later
identified as McDonald) who the citizen had caught breaking into tru,cks and
stealing radios iri. a parking lot near 41st and Kildare Avenue. The radio dispa,tches
were-broadcast to all 8th District patrol unitJ:?·. At 9:5·3 p .m., 815R radiaed that "the
~Y is waiking a~ay with a knife. in his hand," and the. dispatcher inquired as to
whether any available units had a Taser, Beat 822 responded immediately that·
they were on their way, althou-gh they did not indicate whether or not they' had ·a
Taser. At 9:54p.m., 815R radioed th_a t the suspect was walking toward a Burger
King. The dispatcher confirmed the location, and reminded all units that the
individual was armed with a knife. The dispatcher continued to .ask if any other
units were close. At 9:56 p-.m., 815R radioed that the suspect had just popped the
tire· on their squad car. A few seconds later, 845R .(defendant's unit) radioed that
they were two blocks away from the .s cene. A few seconds after that, both Beats
· 821R and 841R also responded that they were on their way. At 9:57 p.m., two u.n its
radioed that there. had.been shots ~d by the pollee.
The dash camera of Beat 813R. captured the shooting, but no audio was
recorded. Although some of the othe:t CPD units had operating dash cameras, due .to
. their positioning they did not capture the actual shooting, nor do they contain audio
recordings. Additional video from two local businesses were recovered, but d-q.e to·
the distance from the shooting and angle are of no qr very limited evidentiary value.
The dash camera video from Beat 813R video depicts McDon~d as he jogs
south on Pulaski, passing a Burger King. At the 9:57:25 p.m. time stamp on t_h e
video, the recording .shows two other marked CPD SUVs-on the scene·: Beat .8 22 is
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 ·stationary facing north, an:\45R is moving south. Officer A pUlls 845{1: a.rooud and
to the south of 822. At tha~' time, McDonald, now walking, is just passing 822 and
he waves rus right arm. A knife is visible in McDonald's right hand. At 9:57:30,
Officer A parks in the m.edi n strip and defenda:nt gets out of the passenger side of
the cat with his gun drawn. By 9:57:33, McDonald hal? walked passed 822. Officer
~---Aar-,.y,has join~d defendau.t alongside 845R, and both a:re pointiag~ their handguns at
M_c Donald, Mo:reover, ;:tt this point, Beat 841R has arrived,_and is just south of
845R. Officer A is slightly behind defendant who is. standing ().lJl the-double yellow
line of the .i lledian. McDonald is approximately one foot from the white lane divider
in the southbound lane, and his body appears to be moving -s lightly away from the
officers toward the west side of Pulaski.
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--- ~-~----- ~--At 9\~_- 7:36, McDonaldhas crossed over the white l~ne divider, away from. t~e

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officers,
defendant ha_s take11 at least one step toward McDonald. McDonald s
arm jerks, · and his body spins around, and falls to the ground. Defendant is
approximately ten feet away ftom McDonald when he fires his first; shots. While
McDonald falls, def~nd~t takes at least one more step towards him, at which point
the angle· of the dash camera chaiiges and we can no longer see defendant within
the frame.
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II<,.

9:57:38, McDonald ·is lying in the street on his right side/stomach, and
there are. two puffs ofsmoke as two bullets hit him. The.s e puffs ofsmoke were later
identified as clouds of debris caused by fired bullets.
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At 9:57:51, McDonald is still lying in the street, and the last visible sh9t is
fired. In the. 13 seconds that .h e. has been on the gro~d, his body has jerked and his
arms have moved slightly. There have been three visible clouds of debris, indicating
shots hitting the pavement near McDonal«fs bo<ly.

At 9:57:54, Officer A approaches 1\-fcDonald and kicks the knife out of his
· hand. The knife, later recovered by police, had a 3-inch blade that folded in_to the
handle. Officer A reported that there was a brief pause in the shot-s when he looked
at defendant and saw that he was preparing to reload his weapon. Officer A could
hear McDonald stru.ggling to breathe, toid: defendant to hold his fire so Officer A
could approach and kick the knife away. Defendant did not fire his weapon after he
reloaded.
Defendant was. armed with a 9-mm caliber semiautomatic pistol that had ..a
16-round capacity. CPD investig~tors la~:r recovered 16 fired cartridge. cases ·from
the scene. The Illinois·State Police determined that all of those · G~r;idge cas;es had
been fired from defendant's _pistol.

 An analysis of the video e$tablishes that 14. to 15 seconds passed from the
time defendant fired his first shot to clear visual evidence of a final shot. For
approximately 13 of those seconds, McDonald is lying on the groun.d. Ofthe-eight or
more officers o,n the scel)e, only defendant fired his weapon.
McDonald had a pulse· at the time Chicago Fire Department paramedics
arrived on the scene, but lost his pulse during trai1$pOirtation to Mt .. Sinai Hospital.
Once at the hospital, resuscitative efforts were unsuccessful, and · he was
pronounced dead.
~ -~-- _ - - - -- - -- ~c_co!ding to the _Gook 'C ounty Med!_c~_ ~xaminer, M_cQ9_n~ldyas~s~Q~__l_!) _ _- - --- ~- -- ___
times <'m d that the multiple gtrt).shot wounds caused -hi$ death. He suffered wounds

to his scalp, neck, left chest, right chest, left elbow (2)~ left fore.a rm, right upper arm ·
(4). right hand, right upper leg (2):, left upper back, and right lower back. To~cology
test results showed. that there was PCP in his system.
Only two of these wounds ·c an be definitively linked to the time when
McDonald was stantling: the right lower back, and one of the right upper leg shots.
Only the shot to McDonald~s right hand can definitively be Iinke~ to the time when
McDonald was on the ~und. Two of the shots would have been rapidly fatal,
altho-ugh none wae immediately fatal. The Medical .E xaminer determined th~t the
ma:nne:r ofMcDonald~s death was homicide.
Defend~t

was on the scene for less than 30 seconds before he started
,shooting, in addition 't o the fact that he .s t·a rts shooting .apprmom.at~ly six seconds
after having gotten out of his car.
According to Officer .! and the officers from Beat 815R, McDo~ald never
,spoke to the officers and never responded to their n~erous ve:r:bal commands that
he drop t.he knife. The 'O:fficets from Beat 815R described him as having a blank
st~e and a glazed look in his eyes, and he appeared to be under ·t he infltJence of
so:methmg. The Beat 815R officers .d id not see the need to use force ag~st ·
McDonald when they ,e ncountered him and that he began running towards Pulaski
when sirens could be heard.
The viqeo clearly does not show McDonald advancing on defendant. None of
the officers have reported that they saw anything substantially different from what
the video s:h ows at the time of the rust
of the
officers observed
McDonald
. shot. None
attempt to throw his knife at defendant, jump or lunge toward Van Dyke; raise his
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 knife as if to stab defendant, or did anything that was obviously threatening toward
d_e fe.n dant beyond what was d.epict~d
in the virl.eo and not responding to coliunands
while carrying a knife.
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Several civilians also witnessed the shooting. Individual A was a motorist
stoReed in traffic on Pulaski _w hen he saw McDonald wallong jn tbe street.
immediately before he was shot, ln_divid~ll) A described McDonald as looking· for a
way to get away from police. According to Individual A, _MGDonal4 n~ver moved
toward, lunged at, or did anything threatening tewards the officers before he was
shot and fell to the ground. Individual A heard a pause in the shots. ~ter McDonald
fell to the ground, but then heru:d more shots. Individual A also did not see.
McDonald do anything threatening while lying on the ground that would caw:;e the
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Individual B was a passenger in Individual A's veh,icie~ Individual B ·s aw
defendant shoot McDonald who fell to the ground. There was about a four second
pause when Indiv.idual B saw McDonald move "a little'' while lying on the ground
and then defendant fued another 5-6 rounds. It appeared -to Individual B that
McDonald was moving away from the defend~t when defendant fired his first shot.
Individllal djd not see Mcbonald charge the officers or do anything threatening to
thein before he was shot.
N.

BONDRECOMMENDATION:

Section 5/110-5 of the Illinois Code of C'cimmal Procedure sets forth criteria
relevant to determining the amount of bail and cOnditions of release. 725 ILCS
5/110-5. In particular, the Court may consider the natlJ.l:e of th~ offense, extellt of
the victim's injuries.

lt is the People's position that Jason Van Dyke must be held mandatory No
Bail in that he personally d.ischar~ed a firearm that pro~ately caused the: death
of Laquan McDonald and that. a possible sentence of life imprisonment could be
imposed as a consequence of hi~ conviction. Based on all the matters discussed
herein, it is the People's belief pursuant to 725 ILCS 5/110-4(a} that the proof is
evident or the presumption great that the defendant is guilty of this offen.s e and
pursuant to statute; the Court must set defendant's bond at no bail.
In the ·e-vent that the Court grants bond to the defendant, the People re.q uest
that as a special .c ondition of such .bond that the Court bar the- defendant from
possession of any firearms a:nd that he surrender all firearms now in his possession

 as well as any Firearms Owner's Identification Card purs,u ant tn. 725 ILCS

5/110~

10(a)(5).

Respectfully submitted,

ANIIAALVJ\l{EZ ·
STATE'S ATIORNEY OF COOK COUNTY
BY:
William G, De~aney
Assistant State's Attorney
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