1.

If

 

they are found to have lied about the details

 

If

 

something comes back that they lied purposely

misrepresented

 

the superintendent wants to make clear he will

seek their termination

 

2.

 

The two cops, Detective

David Marsh and Officer

Joseph Walsh, were placed

 

on desk duty. Walsh was the partner of Officer Jason Van Dyke, who faces first-degree

 

murder charges for shooting Laquan 16 times in 2014.

Walsh backed up Van Dyke’s

 

version of events that don’t jibe with the shooting caught on the now-viral dashcam video.

 

3.

 

Van Dyke said that Laquan, 17 had swung a knife at him, a claim the video does not support.

 

Marsh, lead detective on the case, signed off the reports – the dash cam video “was viewed – found to be consistent with accounts of all witnesses,” police reports. The

reports were also approved

 

by Lt. Antony Wojcki, who supervised the case. Marsh,

Walsh and Wojcik were all

called to testify before a grand jury related to the shooting of Laquan.

 

4.

 

At the time, the police spokesman said it was “premature to speculate

on any action against the officers”

 

due to ongoing disciplinary investigations which had been “held

pending the outcome” of the criminal

 

investigation that lead to murder charges against Van Dyke. That

position changed shortly after

 

Escalante received and reviewed the city inspector general’s memo — which was a preliminary suggestion

 

rather than a final ruling on whether the accused officers violated Rule 14,

a provision in the police code related

 

to making false statements, written or oral. Two other officers at the

scene who claimed to witness VanDyke

 

shooting Laquan — Dora Fontaine and Ricardo Viramontes — each

gave official statements of how events

 

transpired appeared to contradict  sevents caught on dashcam video. Viramontes and Fontaine each said Laquan ignored verbal direction to drop the knife and instead raised

his right arm toward officer Van Dyke

 

“as if attacking Van Dyke.” Fontaine reported that Van Dyke fired in rapid

succession “without pause.” Viramontes

 

added that Laquan “fell to the ground but continued to move attempting to

get back up, with the knife still in his

 

hand. … and Van Dyke fired his weapon at [Laquan] McDonald continuously

until McDonald was no longer moving.”

 

5.

 

The dashcam video showed

Laquan walking away from

Van Dyke when the shooting

 

started, and the injured teen didn’t appear to try to get back up after he fell to the ground.

 

Both Viramontes and Fontaine remain on unrestricted full duty.

 

-found from Fire Officers If They Lied About Laquan Shooting, Police Supt. Says

By  Mark Konkol and Paul Biasco | January 22, 2016

 

***

Denise Miller is a professor, poet and mixed media artist whose publications include poems in Dunes Review, African American Review and Blackberry: A Magazine . She’s the 2015 Willow Books Emerging Poet, an AROHO Waves Discussion Fellowship awardee, a finalist for the Barbara Deming Money for Women Fund, and a Hedgebrook Fellow. Her newest book, Core, released from Willow Books in November 2015 has been nominated for a 2016 American Book Award and a 2016 Pushcart Prize. Additionally, one of her poems from a collection in progress has also been nominated for the 2016 Pushcart Prize. Miller has also been recently named the Fall 2016 Willow Books Writer In Residence in conjunction with the Carr Center Detroit and NEH. More of her work can be found at www.deniseleemiller.com.