Lawsuit: Police Pressured Laquan McDonald Shooting Witness
A woman who says she watched a white Chicago police officer fatally shoot a black teenager has filed a federal lawsuit that alleges police pressured her to change her account or “forget” what she saw.
Alma Benitez also says in the lawsuit that police detained her for hours and falsely told her the dashcam video contradicted what she said happened on Oct. 20, 2014, when officer Jason Van Dyke shot 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times.
The lawsuit also alleges that after police saw Benitez trying to record the shooting on her cellphone, they tried to “view, extract and/or remove” that recording from her phone.
Attorney Amanda Yarusso says Benitez was apparently unsuccessful in recording the shooting because her phone was not charging properly. She says the phone was later stolen.
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