The legacy of McDonald's death upset the status quote in the city, and instigated some far-reaching changes.
The video of McDonald's shooting was made public 13 months after the fact. It shows McDonald being shot 16 times by Van Dyke on October 20, 2014.
"That was definitely tugging on our heart strings to see that over and over again," said Rev. Marvin Hunter, McDonald's great uncle.
Hunter still continues to speak for the family and advocate for more police reform.
"Looks like a lot of effort that's been made have not been made to confront systemic police reform.," he said. "I just want to see policing changed in a way that your children and mine can live safe, and when they meet a police officer, he will do what it says on the side of car serve and protect."
Jamie Kalven was the first journalist to write about the case, and observed that the urgency for change has slowed.
"Here we are all these years later and while significant advances were made it does feel the reform process is stalled," he said.
Advances include efforts to improve police training, transparence and accountability, but a federal court-appointed monitor reported that only 7% of the reforms called for in a Consent Decree have been achieved by the Chicago Police Department.
"We are obligated to everything we can today to reduce the probability of harm tomorrow," Kalven said.
There were several changes in leadership after McDonald's death, and Van Dyke was convicted of the teen's murder. He served three of his seven-year sentence.
"I think that the public is certainly not safe for it, but this is what the public asked for," said his defense attorney Dan Herbert. "We're seeing violence in areas that normally didn't see that violence, and we're seeing victims of crime that normally did not have to worry about being victims of crime as much as they do."
As Chicagoans grapple with the death of Laquan McDonald and other wrongs of the past it seems the city of Chicago continues to be a work in progress.