Federal law sets a “very high bar” to prove cases like this where someone was denied of a constitutional right, he said.
“Prosecutors would have to prove not only that Mr. Van Dyke acted with the deliberate and specific intent to do something the law forbids, but also that his actions were not the result of mistake, fear, negligence, or bad judgment,” he said.
The release said the family agreed with the decision not to pursue another prosecution.
CNN reached out to a representative for the McDonald family along with a representative for Van Dyke but has not heard back.
When Van Dyke was released, McDonald’s great uncle Reverend Marvin Hunter told CNN he wasn’t particularly pushing for a pursuit of federal charges.
“We never asked for revenge, we asked for justice,” Hunter said at the time. “And in the case of Jason Van Dyke we feel we got justice, because he got prosecuted for the crime that he did. He did not do the amount of time that we felt like he should have done, but he did get prosecuted.”
In further laying out his reasoning, Lausch wrote they would have had to consider factors tied to the sentence Van Dyke already served, including “his state prison sentence with conduct entitling him under state law to be released early; and the fact that Mr. Van Dyke no longer is and never again will be a police officer. Given these factors, there is a significant prospect that a second prosecution would diminish the important results already achieved.”
Video showed the shooting
Several police officers were responding to a call about a man breaking into trucks in a parking lot on Chicago’s South Side.
In the video, McDonald is initially seen running, then walking in the middle of the street toward several police cars with flashing lights. McDonald later veers away from two police officers, who have their guns drawn, and within seconds he appears to spin around and fall. He was holding a knife as he walked away from multiple police officers who were following him.
But the dashcam video — which a judge ordered the city to release 13 months after the shooting — showed McDonald walking away from police, rather than charging at them.
