The Bataclan concert hall's owners plan to reopen in 2016, according to local media, NBC News reported. 

The Paris venue, where California band Eagles of Death Metal was playing at the time of the attack, will be internally rebuilt, managers told Le Figaro newspaper. Gunmen killed 89 people at the concert hall on the night of the Nov. 13 attacks. In all 130 people were killed, the majority at the Bataclan. 

"The Bataclan should not be a mausoleum or a place of pilgrimage ... it's necessary to see the doors open again," one of the owners, Jules Frutos, said.

Michelle Obama — alongside family dogs Bo and Sunny — received this year's White House Christmas tree in keeping with an off-and-on tradition that has taken hold since the first tree was placed inside in the 1800s.

Arriving in a horse-drawn carriage on Friday, Nov. 27, the tree was destined for the Blue Room, where it will be adorned for the holidays. The president uses the Blue Room, which is located in the center of the State Floor of the White House, as a formal reception area to receive guests.

The decoration of the Blue Room tree is a White House tradition — like the Presidential Turkey Pardon or the Easter Egg Roll.

But there is some dispute over who brought the first tree into the White House. Many say it was Franklin Pierce, the 14th president, in the 1850s. But according to the White House Historical Association, the first documented tree was placed in the Yellow Room by Benjamin Harrison in 1889.

These first trees were not put up every year or by every president.

"Trees were put up for the joy of children," said William Bushong, chief historian for the WHHA. "If the president didn’t have young children or grandchildren in the house, they didn’t put a tree up in many cases."

President Grover Cleveland, who had young children during his time in office, was known for his elaborately decorated topiaries. During his second term, he became the first to use electric lights in decorating his Christmas tree.

Not all presidents were as enthusiastic, including 26th president Theodore Roosevelt.

As an avid conservationist, Roosevelt saw the cutting of trees for Christmas as potentially damaging to forests. According to the National Christmas Tree Association, the farming of Christmas trees as a crop didn't begin until the 1950s, long after Roosevelt's days in the White House.

Roosevelt's son Archie disagreed, and a popular anecdote from that time period is that he snuck a tree into his bedroom for the holiday.

During the Taft presidency that the tree migrated to its permanent home in the Blue Room. President William Howard Taft and his wife Helen were away for the holiday in 1909, and left the decorating to their children. The kids decided to place the tree in the Blue Room, and subsequent first families followed suit.

According to WhiteHouse.gov, there were only two occasions where the tree was not in the Blue Room since 1961. In 1962, Jacqueline Kennedy moved the tree to the Grand Foyer. In 1969, Patricia Nixon did the same. According to the White House Historical Association, Nixon's reasoning was "so people going by on Pennsylvania Avenue can see [it]."

The White House Historical Association credits first lady Lou Henry Hoover with starting the tradition of an annual tree in 1929. Before then, trees were not necessarily erected yearly and it wasn't the first lady's responsibility.

In fact, according to Bushong, "there really wasn’t much of a hoopla really made about Christmas. It was just a private quiet time during the holidays for the family."

Instead, a reception on New Year's Day was the big event of the winter months. After receiving congressmen, diplomats, and members of the military, the White House would open its doors to the public.

"Thousands of people would come in and shake the hand of the president on New Year's Day," said Bushong. The tradition, however, was discontinued in 1932.

Nearly 30 years later, first lady Jacqueline Kennedy updated the White House Christmas by beginning the convention of decorating the tree with a distinct theme. Her first tree in 1961 was themed "Nutcracker Suite" after the ballet.

Other themes have tied into initiatives by the first ladies. Nancy Reagan, for example, had participants in a drug treatment program help decorate her trees. Barbara Bush had a tree decorated with books to promote literacy.

When receiving the Blue Room tree this year, first lady Michelle Obama told tree farmers Jay and Glenn Bustard that, "This is the tree that we use to honor our military." Her previous holiday decorations also featured dedications to members of the military and their families.

The Bustards grew this year's tree on their farm in Landsale, Pennsylvania. They won the NCTA's National Christmas Tree Contest last July.

The contest picks two winners every two years, and since 1966 these winning farms have supplied the Blue Room trees. Next year's tree will come from Whispering Pines Tree Farm in Oconto, Wisconsin.

A Muslim advocacy group called on the FBI Wednesday to investigate as a hate crime an incident in which an apparently bullet-riddled copy of the Quran was found outside an Islamic clothing store.

The Los Angeles-based Council on American-Islamic Relations said the owner of Al-Farah Islamic Clothing in Anaheim, California, found an English translation of the Quran pierced with multiple holes and hanging on the front door of the store Tuesday morning.
 
The store owner contacted CAIR-LA and the Anaheim Police Department, which is investigating the incident as a possible hate crime, Anaheim police Sgt. Daron Wyatt said.

Several months ago, an unidentified individual shattered a store window. Police are investigating whether the two incidents are related.
 
"Anyone has the right to be a bigot, but when that bigotry is expressed through the targeting of individuals or businesses through acts of intimidation similar to a cross burning, it crosses the line into criminal behavior," said CAIR-LA Executive Director Hussam Ayloush. "If you shoot up a Quran on your own property, that is bigoted freedom of expression. If you deliver that bullet-riddled Quran to a Muslim home or business, that is an act of intimidation and a hate crime."

FBI officials are reviewing the incident.

Ayloush noted that in 2003, the United States Supreme Court ruled that acts of intimidation like KKK-style cross burnings may be prohibited if the perpetrator is carrying out the burning to intimidate or terrorize.

He said the Anaheim incident appeared to be part of an "unprecedented" spike in anti-Muslim discrimination and hate crimes in the wake of the recent terror attacks in Paris.

Muslim leaders have reported recent vandalism, threats and other hate crimes targeting mosques in Nebraska, Florida, Texas, Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee, Ohio, New York and other states.
 
Nyree Arabian contributed to this report.

A candlelight vigil will be held Wednesday for two sisters who were killed in an early morning crash Friday, said to have hugged moments after their car spun out, and just before another vehicle hit their stalled car. 

The accident happened on slick roadways as rain fell around 1:30 a.m. on southbound I-805 in National City, just south of State Route 54.

California Highway Patrol (CHP) officials said the two sisters – identified as  20-year-old Veronica Moreno and 27-year-old Monica Moreno, both of Chula Vista – were together in a truck when the slippery roads caused their vehicle to spin out and hit a center divide.

After the truck carrying the women struck the median, their car stalled out in the fast lane. Investigators said the two women got out of the car. CHP investigators said one witness told them they saw the sister who was driving get out of the car and run to the passenger side just before the collision. Both women got out of the car and gave each other a hug seconds before the sedan fatally struck them.

Both women died at the scene.

A vigil will be held to remember the sisters at Veterans Park in Chula Vista, located at 785 E Palomar St. The event will take place at 5 p.m. 

A viewing will take place shortly after at Our Lady of Guadalupe from 6 to 10 p.m. A burial will be held on Thursday, Dec. 3 at 11 a.m. at Our Lady of Guadalupe, where there will be a caravan to La Vista Memorial Park and Mortuary Cemetery. 

Those who would like to remember the sisters at the vigil are asked to bring a candle, photos, flowers, balloons, or anything else people would like to bring to help remember the women. 

The GoFundMe page had been set up to help the sisters' family members.

Rudy Giuliani, New York City's mayor at the time of the Sept. 11 attack, said there were "pockets of celebration" in the boroughs following the terror attacks that brought down the World Trade Center towers more than 14 years ago.

Giuliani said that there could have been as many as 40 people celebrating after the attacks during an interview with CNN's "New Day" on Tuesday, but added that he thought presidential candidate Donald Trump was "exaggerating" when he said he saw thousands of Muslims cheering after the attacks.

“We did have some celebrating,” Giuliani said on CNN. “That is true. We had pockets of celebration, some in Queens, some in Brooklyn.” 

Giuliani had previously told interviewers at MSNBC that he had heard reports of celebrations, but didn't personally see anyone cheering on the attacks. 

During Tuesday's interview, he cited a specific incident where a family that was attacked after reportedly celebrating the attack.

“We had one situation in which a candy store owned by a Muslim family was celebrating that day, right near a housing development, and the kids in the housing development came in and beat them up,” he said. “Both facts were corroborated to be true.”

The comments come as controversy swirls around Trump's comments last month, when he said at a rally in Birmingham, Alabama, he saw "thousands and thousands people" cheering in Jersey City "as that building was coming down."

Reporters and politicians have taken umbrage with the claim, with the fact-checking website Politifact rated the statement a "pants on fire" falsehood.

Speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday, the Republican people declined to take back the statement.  

"I saw it. So many people saw it ... So, why would I take it back? I'm not going to take it back," he said. 

Asked where he witnessed this, Trump replied, "I saw it on television. I saw clips."

Each year, millions of woman go for a mammogram. The radiologist sees something suspicious, orders a follow-up x-ray or ultrasound, and it turns out to be nothing.

It's distressing, takes up a lot of time and can cost money.

But a new study suggests women who got a false positive were 39 percent more likely to get breast cancer over the next 10 years than women who simply got a negative result on a mammogram, Louise Henderson of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and colleagues found, NBC News reported. 

Women whose x-rays looked serious enough to get them sent for a biopsy were 76 percent more likely to later have an actual breast cancer diagnosis, they reported in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.

"We also found that women with a history of a false-positive result continued to have an increased risk of developing breast cancer 10 years after experiencing the false-positive result," Henderson said in a statement. 

Construction will begin Wednesday to install a temporary sidewalk on a dangerous stretch of road in the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa area.

An alarmingly dangerous dirt path is used by school children on a busy stretch of Old Otay Mesa Road to get to school at San Ysidro High in the Sweetwater Union High School District.

San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and city leaders will attend the ceremony announcing the construction at 1 p.m. Wednesday. 

The city will take a patch of state lands from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to complete an $8.5 million project that will create a safer sidewalk for them.

The project will add bike lanes, realigns the street, constructs retaining walls, and widen and realign the street. In addition, crews will install guard rails, fencing, sidewalks, curb ramps, gutters and street lighting. 

City staff members have been working to build a sidewalk there since 2002.

The district provides free school bus passes to students who would otherwise have to walk that path.

The recently-installed leader of the Taliban was injured in a shootout between senior members of the militant group in Pakistan, an official told NBC News.

Sultan Faizi, a spokesman for the Afghan first vice president, said Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour had been hurt.

An official Taliban spokesman, however, denied that the incident took place. "This is totally baseless," Zabihullah Mujahid said.

The Taliban typically denies reports that could hurt its standing. It had denied for some two years that reclusive, longtime leader Mullah Omar had died.

A minor accused of being an accessory in the murder of a San Diego teenager appeared for a detention hearing Wednesday.

San Diego Police have not confirmed the identity of who was in court today but NBC 7 has learned investigators believe the juvenile is connected to the killing of Anna Hernandez.

Anna Hernandez, 14, was found dead on Nov. 18, her body wrapped in a blanket and dumped in a ravine in Grant Hill.

The area where the body was found by police is located behind the home of a 12-year-old girl who police describe as a runaway.

Hernandez was last seen with the 12-year-old girl on November 13.

Last Friday, the 12-year-old girl's grandfather returned her to the U.S. from Mexico.

That same day, police issued a news release stating that a minor had been booked into juvenile hall in connection to Hernandez's death. But police have not told us the identity of the juvenile.

Meantime, SDPD officers are looking for 16-year old Janneth Mendoza, who, police also describe as a runaway. They say Janneth was one of the last people to be seen with Hernandez.

They're also continuing to search for 19-year-old Daniel Flores, who is wanted in the killing of Hernandez. Flores has been sought by police since March, when he failed to show up to court on a petty theft charge.

Juvenile court proceedings are confidential. But NBC 7 petitioned the court to be present, but the request was denied.

A prosecutor said false or inaccurate information had been released by the media, but would not specify which information.

NBC 7 did not immediately know the outcome of the hearing.
 

 NBC 7's Derek Togerson debunks one of the biggest myths about the NFL's quest for Los Angeles in this commentary

One of the more interesting little nuggets of information to come out of this week's NFL Owners Meetings in Dallas is the revelation that Rams owner Stan Kroenke would be willing to entertain the idea of co-habitating in his Inglewood stadium with either the Chargers or Raiders.

That's significant because, for one, Kroenke actually said something. He's been the most silent of the players in this game of L.A. Roulette so the fact he's making comments means something. But even more than that, it shows Kroenke is feeling like he does not have enough support to win the Los Angeles owners vote.

One of the phrases used in the reporting of this information is "equal partner." Now, what that means to most rational-thinking individuals is splitting everything down the middle. What that means to a business mind like Kroenke, however, is anyone's guess. It's also the reason the Chargers will absolutely not, under any circumstances, be sharing a stadium with the Rams.

Even if we throw out the well-publicized personal conflict between Kroenke and Dean Spanos and just stick to the business aspect of this it's not going to happen. The Spanos family made its fortune in real estate. They own a lot of properties.

Simply put, Dean Spanos does not pay rent. He will not be a tenant for anyone anywhere for any reason. Since there's really no way to fully split the Inglewood project in two a tenant is exactly what the Chargers would be.

Kroenke has already done the legwork on Inglewood. He's bought the land, he's paid for the signature drive, he has the investors lined up to finance the thing. Unless the Spanos family pays him for half of what's already been done and half of what comes next in construction there is no equal partnership.

Moving forward they'd have to find a way to slice the advertising and marketing space in and around the stadium equally, which is not easy to do. Dean is willing to share things in Carson with the Raiders because in that scenario he is Stan Kroenke. The Chargers have done the vast majority of the work in Carson and would have the Raiders be their tenants (which would still be a better deal than the awful lease they have in Oakland).

All that is why the NFL finds itself in limbo. If reports are correct Kroenke sees L.A. support among owners shifting to the Chargers so he's extending an olive branch to keep his plan alive. However, the Inglewood proposal is just about ready to go so from a business standpoint it's the more desirable solution.

The easy answer is to let Stan build his Inglewood site and reward the team the owners want to reward by letting them move in. But with the NFL nothing is ever simple. This thing is going to go to a vote, and the result of that vote is still a long way from being clear.

"Now I know what you're thinking: the Chargers are already tenants at Qualcomm Stadium. Well, that's one of the main reasons they don't want to let it happen again.

Just about every stadium offer (aside from the 2004 idea to build his own stadium if the City would give him the land) put Spanos in the tenant chair. He didn't set up the lease at the Q, his dad did. The renegotiation/renovation of the Q was done as a stop-gap measure when the Bolts were under the impression they'd get a new stadium in the next few years.

The current situation, although one where he does make money, is exactly why he won't be a tenant again. In Carson he would stand to make millions upon millions more. That's not necessarily the case in Inglewood."

The U.S. special operation forces headed to Iraq won't be sitting on the sidelines in the fight against ISIS — they'll be in combat, a top military official said Wednesday.

"A raid is a combat operation, there's no way around that," said Colonel Steve Warren, the Baghdad-based spokesman for the Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve.

Warren said the new force will add about 100 "highly skilled commandos" to the roughly 3,500 already in Iraq, thus "raising the force cap."

The missions will be "exceptionally well-planned" and "very well-targeted," Warren said.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced the deployment on Tuesday during a hearing before the House Armed Services Committee.

Target Corp. agreed to pay $39.4 million to resolve claims by banks and credit unions that said they lost money from the retailer's 2013 data breach.

The preliminary settlement, filed on Wednesday, resolved a class-action claim from lenders seeking to hold Target responsible for their costs to reimburse fraudulent charges and issue new credit and debit cards. And if approved by the U.S. District Court in St. Paul, Minnestota, Target will pay the money to various banks and credit unions.

Target has said at least 40 million credit cards were compromised in the breach, and that as many as 110 million people may have suffered the theft of personal information such as email addresses and phone numbers. The Minneapolis-based retailer has taken steps to avoid a recurrence, including being among the first U.S. retailers to install microchip-enabled card readers at all stores. 

If Republican political insiders are fretting about Donald Trump's impact on the party if he becomes the nominee, they need to start convincing their voters, NBC News reported.

According to a new national Quinnipiac poll, 73 percent of Republican voters say Trump would have a good chance of defeating the eventual Democratic nominee.

That's compared with 63 percent of GOP voters who say this about Marco Rubio, 59 percent who say it about Ted Cruz and 55 percent who say it about Ben Carson.

The real estate mogul also received 27 percent of Republican voters' support while Dr. Ben Carson, in a virtual tie with Trump four weeks ago, dropped to third place to tie with Cruz, receiving 16 percent support of GOP voters.

As Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel rejected calls for his resignation on Wednesday, the uproar over the police shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald continued and protesters increased their pressure on Emanuel to step aside.

A group called the Coalition For a New Chicago said the city was as embarrassed by Emanuel as Toronto was by its former Mayor Rob Ford, who admitted to smoking crack. The group wants Emanuel to leave office.

Aother group of activists, The Black Youth Project 100, said in a statement that the firing of Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy on Tuesday was only one step that Emanuel needed to take to hold himself and the city accountable for systemic violence against black people. Now Emanuel and Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez must resign, the group said.

Also calling for their resignation, in an opinion column in The New York Times, was Bernard Harcourt, a former law and political science professor at the University of Chicago who is now a professor at Columbia University.

And at the premiere of Spike Lee’s new movie “Chi-Raq” on Tuesday, the director said McCarthy’s departure would not be the only one.

Lee predicted “some more heads are gonna roll.”

“We have a process,” he said. “It’s called the election. The voters spoke. I’ll be held accountable and responsible for my actions and decisions I make and that’s how I approach it. I never shrink from the responsibility of making what I think are the very tough decisions to move the city forward.”

Demonstrators have taken to the streets in Chicago following the release of a video showing McDonald being fatally shot 16 times as he walked down the middle of Pulaski Road. Critics are demanding to know why the city did not release the video early in the year, in what some are calling a cover-up that helped Emanuel win his re-election battle.

Last week, 13 months after McDonald’s killing, Officer Jason Van Dyke was charged with murder, a delay that also prompted calls for Alvarez's resignation.

Former Chicago alderman Dick Simpson, now a political science professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said that he did not think Emanuel would resign unless he lost so much support that he was unable to accomplish anything. Members of the black and Latino caucuses on the City Council have called for the resignations of McCarthy and Alvarez but not of Emanuel, Simpson said.

“We have never impeached a mayor," he said noting that the city has had some scoundrels in office. He also said that the City Council has acted as a "rubber stamp" for Emanuel. 

There is no procedure in Illinois to recall a mayor, Simpson said.  

Alvarez, who is up for re-election next year, is in trouble in her primary challenge, he said. He said he thought it likely that she could lose. 

More than 14 people were killed and 14 others were wounded Wednesday in an "active shooter" situation involving up to three suspects at a social services facility east of Los Angeles.

The shooting was reported about 11 a.m. inside a center that serves people with developmental disabilities in the 1300 block of S. Waterman Avenue in San Bernardino (map), said Lt. Richard Lawhead of the San Bernardino Police Department.

"Up to three people entered the building and had opened fire on the people that were inside," San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said. "They were dressed and equipped in a way that indicated that they were prepared."

Multiple agencies, including the FBI and ATF, were assisting with the investigation.

Images from the scene showed law enforcement personnel armed with rifles and wearing protective gear fanning out across the area, as emergency responders treated multiple victims in the street.

"They were being carried on trucks… They were shot, they were injured. Some of them did not survive," said NBC Los Angeles reporter Tony Shin, describing victims he saw being brought to the triage area.

The shooting broke out at the Inland Regional Center, which serves more than 31,000 people with developmental disabilities in San Bernardino County and neighboring Riverside County, according to the center's website. According to the site, the facility is the largest of California's regional centers, and is "a nonprofit, private community-based agency that is proud to help obtain services and support for our constituents."

Lawhead said law enforcement officers were going through the "tedious" process of clearing the three-story building, where multiple people were still inside.

One man at the scene said his daughter, who works at the center with the mentally disabled, had texted him. She was hiding in a closet with other people, he said. The man was still awaiting a text to ensure that she is OK.

Another man told NBC Los Angeles his sister has cerebral palsy and attends the center.

NBC Los Angeles photographer Alex Vasquez made his way to the Inland Regional Center soon after the shooting and said he saw many people with severe injuries, and that he spoke to some who were in shock.

"They heard many gunshots. A lot of people were just yelling for their loved ones," he said.

Loma Linda University Medical Center said it had received four adult patients and was expecting three more.

Family members were asked to go to the Hernandez Center at 222 N. Lugo Ave., near the corner of Sierra Way and East Third Street, for information on their loved ones.

The area near Waterman Avenue and Park Center Circle was closed to traffic. Drivers were advised to avoid the area.

President Barack Obama was briefed by an adviser about the shooting, and asked to stay updated as it develops, according to a pool report from the White House.

San Bernardino is about 60 miles from Los Angeles.

Refresh this page for updates on this developing story.

A North Park man returned home Wednesday to find his bungalow destroyed by fire.

Mark Leisinger said he hasn’t turned on the heater at the home on the corner of University Avenue and Park Boulevard in the year or so he’s lived there.

Fire swept through the cottage early Wednesday, just days after Leisinger organized the San Diego Run for the Hungry event. He's organized the run for five years for people less fortunate and now he is in their shoes. Just days away from Christmas he has lost everything.

He was not at home when fire sparked inside the one-bedroom home around 2:40 a.m.

San Diego Fire-Rescue crews responded and found flames coming out of the side windows of the small building.

Firefighters pulled out several pieces of burned debris and clothing from the home after they knocked down the fire within 12 minutes.

Flames destroyed the front room and damaged most of the 1,000-square foot home.

SDFD Capt. Joe Amador said the fire was an accident involving a wall heater with combustibles nearby.

The owner of the bungalows told NBC 7 he has the heaters in these homes checked once a year. 

Chula Vista Police in Southern California say they have arrested a suspect who ran out of his idling car and randomly stabbed strangers on three separate occasions. 

Gerardo Bejar, 45, was taken into custody during a traffic stop Tuesday, accused of three counts of assault with a deadly weapon.

Saul Mass, one of the victims, told NBC 7 he is still healing physically and mentally from the unprovoked attack.

On Nov. 23 at about 7:30 a.m., Mass was walking his dog behind the Target store on Broadway when a man in a gray Mustang jumped out of his car and thrust a knife into Mass' back. The stabbing was caught on store surveillance cameras.

"I can't do nothing now," the victim said, showing NBC 7 the bandages on his shoulder blade. "I fear he is going to come back. He did want to hurt me more." 

Mass said the suspect asked him for cigarette rolling papers as a diversion to get close to him. The man chased him, but Mass said he managed to escape.

"Who knows what he believes when he do that," Mass told NBC 7. "He does it with such confidence."

The most recent stabbing happened Tuesday at 12:04 p.m. on the 300 Block of K Street. Police said a man stopped his car in the middle of the street, ran to a man walking the opposite direction and drove a knife into his back.

The suspect then ran back to his car and drove off. 

"It's relatively random," said Chula Vista Police Lt. Fritz Reber. "There appears to be no rhyme or reason to it. The victims don't know the suspect, never seen him before."

The first incident happened on Nov. 17 at approximately 4 p.m. on the 1600 block of Industrial when a woman in a wheelchair said she was stabbed in the back. The woman told witnesses a man driving a Mustang had approached her and gotten out to stab her "for no reason."

All three victims suffered non-life threatening injuries.

Anyone with information may call the police at (619) 691-5151, or (619) 422-TIPS to remain anonymous. You can also visit the police's website by clicking here or contact the San Diego Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.

No further information was immediately available. 

The Toreros are undefeated at home in the La Mont Smith era.

Senior Duda Sanadze tallied a game-high 21 points to lead the Toreros to victory against scrappy Bethesda.

USD has now won back-to-back contests after an 0-5 start.

Junior Brett Bailey scored 9 points Wednesday night including a couple of and-1’s that sparked the Toreros.

USD trailed by 3 at intermission despite going just 1-14 from behind the arc in the first half.

But an early 8-0 run in the second half helped them grab the lead from the Flames.

USD faces cross-town rival San Diego State Sunday at 2 p.m. in the first college basketball game played at Petco Park.

A group of retired Chicago police officers on Wednesday joined calls for a federal probe into the Chicago Police Department's practices following the shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. 

"We’re not here today to bash anyone, we’re not here today to start an uproar. We’re here to get justice," said former officer Richard Wooten.

The group called for investigations into the police department as well as the Independent Police Review Authority, the organization tasked with investigating allegations of police misconduct. 

The officers' calls come one day after Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and the Chicago Urban League asked for the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division to investigate the department's practices.

One retired Chicago police sergeant claimed during the Wednesday news conference that the alleged misconduct seen in the city’s police department during the McDonald case “has been going on for years."

The only difference now, he says, is that it is being caught on camera.

“You have unions that, whenever there's a police shooting, they give you a story that makes the public think in every case of a policeman shooting someone that a male black subject was running down the street holding his pants and he turned around and aimed a gun at a policeman,” said retired sergeant Michael Davis. “Never in my career have I chased someone who had a gun and they turned around and aimed at me. You chase someone with a gun, they're going to run and throw that gun away.”

Davis, speaking with the group of retired African American police officers, many of whom worked in the department for decades, warned that there have been other shootings in the city “worse than the shooting of Laquan.”

McDonald was fatally shot 16 times by an officer in October 2014. Police initially said the officer involved in the shooting, who has since been charged with first-degree murder, was defending himself and that McDonald lunged at him with a knife. Dashcam video released last month, however, showed the teen apparently walking away from officers when he was shot.

On Tuesday, one week after the dashcam video's release, Mayor Rahm Emanuel fired Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy, saying he had “become an issue rather than dealing with the issue.” Emanuel also announced the creation of a police accountability task force.

“We don't need mayors and the so-called Independent Police Review Authority covering up for these guys and this panel the mayor created is more of the same,” Davis said.

His statement was echoed by other officers in the group.

Davis noted that there are “thousands of excellent officers, but a few criminal policemen on the streets.”

“There are a lot of policemen who want to speak out on this,” he said. “As policemen there are orders that you cannot violate, one of them is bringing attention to something in the police department that casts them in a negative light. The unions and some other policemen would view them with contempt. As retired police officers, we don’t have to be silent. We can tell you the truth.”