Dash-Cam Footage of Laquan McDonald Murder by White Cop Released: Celebrity Twitter Reactions

Back in October 2014, 17-year-old Laquan McDonald was killed by the bullets of a white police officer named Jason Van Dyke. More than a year later, the city of Chicago has released dash-cam footage of what went down the night the black teen was murdered. And naturally, several celebs have responded via Twitter.

VICE reports that Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the city attempted to keep the footage under wraps for a long while as investigations played out, much to the satisfaction of McDonald's family, who claim that they would have rather the video not be made public. However, due to a lawsuit filed by journalist Brandon Smith under the Freedom of Information Act, Judge Franklin Valderrama ordered that the footage be made available to the public.

1955: Black ppl march to end segregated buses. 2015: Black ppl march to end police shooting them dead on the street. #horror #LaquanMcDonald

— Neal Brennan (@nealbrennan) November 25, 2015

For those unaware of the events surrounding McDonald's murder, it all went down back in 2014 when the teen, who was holding a knife, was shot 16 times by Officer Jason Van Dyke. Up until this day, Chicago policemen on the scene claimed that McDonald "lunged" at the officers, which caused them to fire and, ultimately, kill him. 

However, the newly released dash-cam footage seems to show a different story. [WARNING: NSFW VIDEO]

Finally, accountability! https://t.co/zySL8xxVD0 — Mark Ruffalo (@MarkRuffalo) November 24, 2015

In the footage, it appears that McDonald was walking in the middle of the road, in between traffic, holding a knife. He approaches the authorities, keeping his distance as he walks by. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, shots are fired and McDonald was shot dead. Then, for the next 13 seconds, Van Dyke put 16 shots into McDonald's body––much of them as he lay motionless.

It's also being reported that the officers on the scene had surveillance footage from a nearby Burger King deleted.

On Nov. 24, Officer Jason Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder. If convicted, a possible sentence of 20 years to life comes his way.