At South Side Barbershop, Anger Simmers Over The Sheer Volume Of Bullets Cop Fired Into Teen
(CBS) – Everybody was talking about it at Frank's Place, a South Side barbershop: how a white cop last year shot a black teen during a confrontation.
And how the dash-cam video of that death is set to be released any day.
"The idea that he just only had this knife when they got there and they gunned him down 16 times. Like some animal," Marvin Davis tells CBS 2's Jim Williams at the 47th Street social hub.
In October 2014, Chicago police surrounded suspect Laquan McDonald, 17, who reportedly had been slashing tires in the Archer Heights neighborhood. Initial reports indicated the teen acted in a threatening manner before he was fatally shot. A knife was recovered at the scene.
More recently, another narrative has emerged: Officer Jason Van Dyke, who is white, fired 16 questionable rounds into McDonald. The officer has been stripped of his police powers, pending investigations.
It's that number of shots fired -- 16 – that seemed to hang over the sound of clippers Monday at Frank's Place.
"They could of Tased him," says one barber, who goes by the name of Big Mike.
Jae Williams was also incredulous. "What were they being trained to do -- to shoot 16 times? I could do that."
Some leaders hope if Van Dyke faces some kind of official action this week it may quell unrest when the video is released publicly, as ordered by a judge last week.
"They already angry. It's done. They already angry. So when they see the tape they're just going to get angrier," Big Mike says.
The men don't feel a violent reaction is justified, but they fear it will happen, anyway.
"It's going to make us look bad. And it ain't going to solve one thing," Jae Williams says.
