A dashcam video just released by the Chicago police department confirms that Ronald Johnson III was shot from behind.
Cook County’s state Attorney Anita Alvarez also announced that there will be no charges against George Hernandez, the officer who fired the shots. She called Hernandez’s actions “reasonable and permissable.” She says they sent the video to an FBI lab to prove Johnson had a gun in his hand, and cops say they found one on the ground after he was shot.
Here is what Chicago police said happened to result in Ronald Johnson’s shooting: http://t.co/CtRFCy0dl0 pic.twitter.com/fTnls1VTKE
— Wesley Lowery (@WesleyLowery) December 7, 2015
Alvarez also says the FBI decided not to take part in the criminal investigation after seeing the video. Family Attorney Michael Oppenheimer contends that the gun was planted. The night Johnson was killed, he was in a car with friends when an unidentified gunman shot out the back window. According to the police, Johnson then resisted arrest and ran while holding a gun. Prosecutors say that there was a fight between Johnson and another group of officers before he began to run away. The Chicago Tribune reports:
Autopsy results obtained by the Tribune show the fatal shot traveled through Johnson’s shoulder, severed his jugular vein and exited his eye socket.
Oppenheimer said, “There was nothing in his hand, not a gun, a cellphone, a bottle of water — nothing,” Oppenheimer and Johnson’s mother Dorothy Holmes gave their account of the incident on December 1st:
Her son was killed over a year ago, and she’s still waiting for answers & a #Chicago PD dashcam video #RonaldJohnson http://t.co/UvsuCAspM4 — Brooke Baldwin (@BrookeBCNN) December 1, 2015
Dorothy Holmes, community members and activists are calling for the resignation of Rahm Emanuel and Anita Alvarez using the hashtag #ResignRahm.
