I’m sure he had a smile that could light up a room.
Laquan McDonald said little, if anything, to Chicago police as they tried to detain him last year for breaking into trucks while carrying a knife.
What was going through his 17-year-old mind on that stretch of Pulaski Road before he was fatally shot by a Chicago police officer won’t ever be known.
But in the teen’s final month, some caught a glimpse of a kid who showed signs of hope and promise to maybe untangle himself from a troubled life.
…According to court records, McDonald’s father abandoned the family and had “no presence” in his life. At 3, McDonald became a ward of the state when the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services took him into protective custody over allegations that his mother had neglected him, according to state records.
He spent about two months in foster care before he was moved to a relative’s home and eventually back to his mother in 2002. But after just a little more than a year, he was again back in foster care when his mother’s boyfriend beat him, causing cuts, welts and bruises, according to the records.
…Court files show he racked up numerous juvenile arrests and had spent time in juvenile lockup.
…McDonald enrolled in Sullivan House Alternative School in September 2014, a month before his shooting. In the few weeks he had been there, staff said he was engaged. He tended to arrive early, ahead of the 8 a.m. start, they said.
…McDonald, who was tall at 6-foot-2, liked to rap and dance, his teacher recalled. And he was happy.
COMMENTS:
* The life and shooting of this young man is tragic, but this LA Times article is almost the same quality of a bad SNL skit. If anyone ever doubts the media being liberal, show them this article.
* Wasn’t Mike Brown also just turning his life around? These kids always seem to get shot just as they were turning their lives around.
* PCP isn’t a turning your life around. It’s turning your life inside out.
* With a name like his, it’s no wonder. Now that mommy got a $5,000,000 pay out for bad parenting, I wonder how long it will be before his long lost father shows up demanding a piece of the pie.
