Follow along live from court below.
More jurors were seated as jury selection resumed Wednesday in the high-profile murder trial of Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke.
Potential jurors have faced a series of questions from attorneys and a judge, with three women and two men being picked earlier in the week.
Hours after questioning began Monday, Van Dyke's defense team filed a change of venue motion asking to strike the current jury panel because prospective jurors had to pass protesters who held signs that said their client had been "guilty of racist murder."
The large pool of 200 potential jurors filled out questionnaires the previous week and returned Monday for one-on-one interviews with the judge behind closed doors.
This has not been a typical jury selection process as the larger-than-usual pool of potential jurors faces heightened scrutiny. Gaughan has not yet ruled on motions filed by Van Dyke's defense team aiming to move the trial outside of Cook County due to extensive news coverage of the shooting, a topic potential jurors will likely be questioned on. The judge said he would rule on that once questioning of potential jurors is underway. Should the trial stay in Cook County, jury selection was expected to take a week or longer.
In addition, the defense team has also not yet announced if they plan to seek a jury trial or leave the decision in Gaughan's hands.
Van Dyke is charged with murder in the shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald nearly four years ago.
Van Dyke was captured on dashcam video shooting McDonald 16 times the night of Oct. 20, 2014, on the city's Southwest Side. He was charged with six counts of first-degree murder in November 2015, and 16 counts of aggravated battery in March 2017.
Van Dyke entered a plea of not guilty.
Follow along live from court below.
12:28 p.m.: Day 2 of jury selection is completed. Five more jurors were selected, 4 of them were female. Jury selection continues tomorrow at 8:30 a.m.
12:18 p.m.: Two jurors that were rejected included a young white male who was also applying to be a CPD Officer, but is further along in the interview process. The other white male has several friends in the CPD and they talk about the case often.
12:11 p.m.: Juror No. 10 has been selected. She’s a young Hispanic woman who is currently working for a downtown parking company, but applying to become a CPD Officer.She’s in the early stages of the process and says she can be fair.
1:01 p.m.: Juror No. 9 is a white female who works in the billing department for a surgical practice. She’s also worked on a lot of political campaigns. Her family is longtime family friends with Judge Gaughan’s family. She’s seen the Laquan McDonald video and thought “a lot of shots were fired.”
12:53 p.m.: Juror No. 8 is an unemployed mother and grandmother. Her parents worked in the fields in Texas and her brother is a cowboy. She says she has no opinion on the case, but is scared of the protests outside the courthouse.
12:35 p.m.: Two more jurors just seated for Jason Van Dyke trial, bringing the total seated to nine. A white female and Hispanic female were the latest to be added.
Local
11:32 a.m.: Juror No. 7 says he has not seen the video. But even though on the questionnaire he said he has not heard about the case, he admitted to the judge today, he had. He also said “I’m just a big supporter of the 2nd amendment. And I have a lot of respect for police.”
11:28 a.m.: Juror No. 6 says she has seen the Laquan McDonald video and was surprised it was shown on TV for kids to see. As for her thoughts on Van Dyke, “I couldn’t say he was guilty, but I had an opinion about how many times shots went off. I can’t lie... that’s a lot of shots."
11:23 a.m.: A 6th and 7th juror have been seated in Jason Van Dyke trial. No. 6 is a black female who has been working for FedEx for 24 years. No. 7 is a white male.
9 a.m.: Day 2 of jury selection continues in Jason Van Dyke trial. Defense attorney Dan Herbert tells Judge Gaughan he’ll move forward with jury trial until a ruling on change of venue motion.
