Cop shot teen 16 times

Photo: The Canadian Press

Protesters gather as Jason Van Dyke arrives for the start of his trail in the shooting death of Laquan McDonald at the Leighton Criminal Court Building in Chicago Monday, Sept. 17, 2018. (Zbigniew Bzdak/Chicago Tribune via AP)

Prosecutors on Monday showed jurors video of a white Chicago police officer opening fire on Laquan McDonald, dramatically recounting the 16 shots fired into the black teenager and calling the 2014 shooting "completely unnecessary."

Jurors saw video of the shooting three times during the first day of Jason Van Dyke's murder trial, including during the prosecution's opening statement. The recordings show the officer shooting McDonald on Oct. 20, 2014, as the 17-year-old, carrying a small knife in one hand, walks away from officers. The video's release about a year after the shooting sparked large protests, the ouster of the police superintendent and demands for police reform.

"He shot him ... not once, not twice, but three, four, five, six seven, eight — he's only half way done — nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 times in total," special prosecutor Joseph McMahon told jurors, rapping his knuckles on a lectern each time he said a number.

"Not a single shot was necessary or justified," he said at another point in his opening statement.

But defence attorney Daniel Herbert argued that Van Dyke "is not a murderer. ... He is a scared police officer who was fearful for his life and the life of others and acted as he was trained to do."

Herbert also argued that the number of shots fired was irrelevant: "They didn't charge him with shooting too many times. They charged him with first-degree murder."

Herbert painted a picture of McDonald as a crazed teenager who had attacked a truck driver and a squad car and had tried to get into two restaurants. He said McDonald had flicked his folding knife open when Van Dyke pulled up.

McDonald was "planning to attack" again, Herbert said. "He's not trying to escape."

He and McMahon both noted McDonald had the hallucinogenic drug PCP in his system.

But McMahon said Van Dyke didn't know that — or anything else about McDonald — when he opened fire just six seconds after getting out of his squad car.

"What he did see was a black boy walking down a street with a chain link fence with the audacity to ignore the police," McMahon said.