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Cook Co State's Attorney Defends Cop Murder Charge Timing

The Cook County state's attorney is defending the amount of time it took to charge a white Chicago police officer who shot a black teenager 16 times in a killing caught on dashcam video. Anita Alvarez's office announced a first-degree murder charge, just a day before a deadline the city faces for releasing the video and more than a year after the shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. Alvarez said cases involving police officers present ``highly complex'' legal issues and she would rather take the time to get it right than ``rush to judgment.''  

She said the impending release of the video, ordered by a judge, prompted her to move up the announcement of the charge out of concern that the video would spark violence. But she insisted that she made a decision ``weeks ago'' to charge the officer and the video's release did not influence that

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