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What Happened to the Burger King Surveillance Video of Laquan Shooting?

By Jen Sabella | November 24, 2015 1:31pm | Updated on November 24, 2015 5:40pm
 The Burger King at 40th and Pulaski
The Burger King at 40th and Pulaski
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CHICAGO — More than a year passed between the shooting of Laquan McDonald and Tuesday's murder charges against Officer Jason Van Dyke. But accusations still flew throughout the year, including claims that police officers may have erased a nearby Burger King's surveillance video.

In May, NBC reported that officers, immediately after the McDonald shooting, entered a Burger King near 40th and Pulaski and erased 86 minutes of footage from a surveillance camera.

The fast food spot was just yards from where McDonald was shot 16 times by Van Dyke, a shooting prosecutors now say was first-degree murder.

In May, Burger King manager Jay Darshane told NBC: 

 ... four to five police officers wearing blue and white shirts entered the restaurant and asked to view the video and were given the password to the equipment. Three hours later they left, he said.

The next day, when an investigator from the Independent Police Review Authority asked to view the security footage, it was discovered that the 86 minutes of video was missing.

At the time, IPRA said they had no evidence of the video being altered, but Darshane told DNAinfo Tuesday that he's been visited by other authorities since then — and will likely have to testify in the case.

Dasrhane declined to comment further, saying he was told not to speak about the incident.

At a press conference Tuesday evening, Police Supt Garry McCarthy said accusations that police tampered with the video is "absolutely not true."

Earlier, Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez said Burger King's cameras did not capture the shooting, and that "it doesn't appear that [their video had] been tampered with."

When asked to elaborate, Alvarez said there was forensic testing done to look for tampering and there was no evidence of it. She would not say who conducted the testing, however.

Police had no information about further charges Tuesday afternoon.

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