Breaking Down The Laquan McDonald Shooting Video

By Bob Owens

Like any serious student of armed self-defense, we watch videos of violent incidents in order to learn from both the victims and the survivors. Surveillance cameras, dash cameras and body cameras, along with the ubiquitous cell phone video, have become increasingly important tools in our quest to understand how and why violent incidents progress the way they do.

Yesterday, authorities released the dashcam video from a Chicago PD vehicle dashcam which captured the video of Laquan McDonald being shot by CPD officer Jason Van Dyke. Van Dyke was charged with first degree murder yesterday based upon the totality of the evidence arrayed against him.

Of the seven officers on-scene, only Van Dyke fired. Not only did Van Dyke fire, he emptied his gun, shooting McDonald 16 times in roughly four seconds, with at least one of the shots coming immediately after McDonald hit the ground.

When we watch videos of this type, we look for several things:

• What was Person A doing that caused Person B to open fire?
• Could Person B legally and morally be justified in firing bullet number “X” using a “reasonable man” standard?
• Are there any extenuating/mitigating circumstances for the behavior of either party?

In this incident, …Read the Rest

Source:: Bearing Arms