CHICAGO — Chicago’s police superintendent has recommended that seven officers be fired for lying in the aftermath of the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald in October 2014.

McDonald’s death was captured in a video that contradicted the accounts of officers.

Superintendent Eddie Johnson emailed police Thursday, telling them that he had recommended seven officers be fired for making false statements. He also stripped the officers of their police powers.

Johnson’s move came in response to Inspector General Joseph Ferguson’s recent report on the shooting in which he recommended that 10 officers be fired.

But Johnson wrote that he thought the evidence against one of the officers was insufficient to recommend termination.

In addition, two high-ranking officers retired during the city’s long-delayed response to the incident.

A lieutenant involved in the department’s response to the shooting, Anthony Wojcik, retired in May, while David McNaughton, the deputy chief who ruled that Officer Jason Van Dyke’s shooting complied with departmental policy, retired this week just as it became publicly known that the inspector general’s office had delivered its report.

The superintendent did not name any of the officers he is seeking to fire, but many of them were patrol officers at the scene of the shooting.


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