Garry McCarthy | Facebook / Garry McCarthy
Garry McCarthy | Facebook / Garry McCarthy
Former Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy has been named interim chief of police in Willow Springs.
AM 560’s Morning Answer host Dan Proft tweeted about the appointment earlier in the day.
"Word on the street is former Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy is set to become the new police chief in Willow Springs," Proft tweeted.
McCarthy ran the Chicago Police Department from 2011 to 2015. He was fired in the wake of the Laquan McDonald murder by a Chicago police officer and the subsequent cover-up. The officer who shot McDonald, Lance Van Dyke, was freed after serving less than half of his nearly seven-year sentence. Van Dyke shot McDonald 16 times.
Graphic video of the incident shows Van Dyke shooting McDonald, who falls to the ground limply. Van Dyke then continues to shoot McDonald as he lied on the ground.
According to CBS Chicago, McCarthy said he stripped Van Dyke of his police powers in the wake of the shooting but did not release dashcam footage — which he viewed days after. "I couldn't fire him. I couldn't put him in a 'no pay' status. I couldn't discipline him. That's the law," he said at the time. "It was not the Chicago Police Department investigating this incident." Instead, McCarthy withheld the tape until being forced by a Cook County judge to release it.
McCarthy was also a police director in Newark, N.J., from 2006 to 2011, a former New York City police officer from 1981 to 2006, and served as deputy commissioner for operations for six years, according to Ballotpedia. He also ran for mayor of Chicago in 2019 but lost, with only 2.7% of the vote.
A press conference is scheduled for Thursday to announce his appointment, according to ABC 7 Chicago. McCarthy will take over for former Willow Springs Police Chief Jim Ritz, who recently resigned.
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