A Cook County judge said he will look through 8,200 pages of child-welfare records related to Laquan McDonald in order to see if they belong in the criminal trial of Jason Van Dyke. Van Dyke is the Chicago police officer who shot and killed McDonald in 2014. 

Van Dyke’s attorneys failed to get the records through a child-protection judge last month. 

Some experts doubt that McDonald’s childhood could be relevant to why the officer opened fire. Judge Vincent Gaughan said that he will make that determination after looking at the records privately.