Chicago City Wire

Three Chicago Police officers were indicted by a grand jury on June 27 in the shooting death of Laquan McDonald in 2014, according to a report from the Edgar County Watchdogs.

David March, Joseph Walsh and Thomas Gaffney are accused of official misconduct, obstruction of justice and conspiracy to conceal true facts in the case. The grand jury alleged that the officers tried to prevent criminal investigation and prosecution of another officer, Jason Van Dyke, who shot McDonald. Van Dyke is not identified in the indictment.

“In order to accomplish this goal, the co-conspirators lied about what occurred and mischaracterized the video recordings so that independent criminal investigators would not know the truth about the Laquan McDonald killing and the public would not see the video recordings of the events,” the indictment says. “The co-conspirators understood that public airing of the events surrounding Laquan McDonald’s killing, including the video recordings, would inexorably lead to a thorough criminal investigation by an independent body and likely criminal charges.”

Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke | Cook County State's Attorney's Office

The officers allegedly added false information to police reports on the incident that resulted in McDonald’s death, including saying that McDonald had assaulted the officers prior to being killed.