Van Dyke’s lawyers aim to justify McDonald’s shooting on legal grounds

Before the trial of Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke began, his lawyers argued the case against him should be tossed on technical, legal grounds.

When Van Dyke fatally shot Laquan McDonald, they said, he was pursuing a person who had committed forcible felonies trying to escape by means of a deadly weapon — a knife. That meant McDonald’s death was justified under Illinois law, they reasoned.

The argument didn’t persuade Judge Vincent Gaughan to toss the case. So Wednesday, as they tried to make the same argument to a jury on the trial’s seventh day of testimony, they called witnesses to help bolster their position.

It might not have gone as well as they hoped.

That’s largely because Rudy Barillas, the truck driver whose 911 call initiated the fatal confrontation between McDonald and police, was never asked to identify McDonald as the person who allegedly attacked him Oct. 20, 2014 at 41st and Kildare. McDonald would be fatally shot by Van Dyke a short time later.

“He pulled out a knife and wanted to hurt me,” Barillas said of his attacker as he testified through a Spanish interpreter.

That alleged attack on Barillas is among a handful of forcible felonies defense lawyers say McDonald committed before he was killed. Others include McDonald’s decision to pop the tire of a police vehicle and slash at its windshield, defense lawyers say.

Barillas testified that, when he went with his wife to park his truck at the depot that night, he saw another person inside a truck. He said he asked that person to leave, and that person pulled out the knife.

“He came toward me and he tried to stab me,” Barillas said.

Barillas said he fended the attacker off by first throwing a cell phone at him and then tossing dirt and gravel in his face. Barillas also said he tried to call police. And when that became apparent, he said the attacker fled.

Barillas described his attacker as a black male dressed in a black sweater and blue jeans. He said the person was about 5 feet, 6 inches tall. McDonald was 6 feet tall, according to his autopsy.

The key portions of Illinois’ use of force law says a police officer is justified in using deadly force “when he reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself” or others, or when it is “necessary” to prevent an escape and the person to be arrested has committed a forcible felony or is trying to escape by using a deadly weapon.

The defense team called Yolanda Sayre to help them explain the law. The attorney and police academy instructor said she uses worksheets to help recruits understand when deadly force is justified. On cross examination she acknowledged she emphasizes that force must be “reasonable” and “necessary.”

Recruits are taught to consider knives as deadly weapons, she said. She also said she’s been instructing recruits for roughly two decades, including when Van Dyke was in the academy.

Among other defense witnesses Wednesday was Officer Leticia Velez, who was at the scene of McDonald’s shooting and said he looked “deranged.” Another was Jeremy Stayton, a doctor who operated on McDonald at Mount Sinai Hospital after the shooting.

Though Stayton said a gunshot wound that damaged McDonald’s pulmonary artery was key to McDonald’s death, he wouldn’t say whether McDonald could have survived the other 15 shots. He said McDonald bled to death, which “takes a while.”