As they neared the corner, Toth said, he saw Chatman “make a move to his right” just before the shots rang out, according to the case incident report.
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The city of Chicago released a video of another police officer killing an unarmed black teenager three years ago, after giving up a lengthy legal battle to keep it from the public eye.
The city’s prior opposition to releasing the videos of Chatman’s shooting – as late as December – has brought on new heat.
Emanuel and his administration have faced sharp criticism since the city released a police video in November showing a white police officer shooting a black teenager 16 times in 2014. An attorney for the family stated that the release of the video will further support the claims that there is a systemic problem in Chicago involving the slaying of African American youth by the city’s police force.
The video captures parts of the January 7, 2013 incident, and its release comes months after police dashcam footage of the death of Laquan McDonald was revealed.
According to CNN, another officer then stands on Chatman after he is wounded.
Filmed from a significant distance, the footage does not clearly show the moment in which Cedrick Chatman, aged 17, is shot. The camera then pans right and shows Toth crouching over the fallen Chatman.
As Chatman turned a corner and collapsed in the street, two pedestrians who had almost walked into the line of fire turned and ran in a panic down Jeffery Avenue. Officer Kevin Fry fired four shots, mortally wounding Cedrick. A 911 call recording shows that the person who was carjacked was bleeding from the face and said, “I was beat… they dragged me out the vehicle”, though the person did not say if the attackers had weapons. The officers claim he turned around and pointed a black object at them, an object which turned out to be a black iPhone box.
Attorneys Mark Smolens and Brian Coffman, representing the Chatman family, expressed frustration after a hearing Thursday morning that the city abruptly reversed its position Tuesday afternoon on whether to allow the public to see video of that shooting. Attorneys for Chatman’s family said that the video contradicts Fry’s account, and that the teenager never turned around.
The video, which was released Thursday, is grainy, and it may yet be inconclusive as to whether the officers did anything wrong. The police initially charged Clark and Odum with Chatman’s death as well, but dropped the charges later.
Chatman’s family had asked that the video in his case be made public, arguing it would counter the city’s narrative that Chatman posed a danger to police.
Chicago city officials had originally filed a protective order to keep the video out of the public eye, saying that its release would sway a potential juror pool.
Judge Robert W. Gettleman said Thursday in court that he was “disturbed” by how the city handled the case and the lawyer’s last-minute decision to show the video.
“I think it’s irresponsible”, Gettleman added.
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At this point, Officer Fry and his partner, Lou Toth, remain on active duty and haven’t been charged with any wrongdoing. Davis was the “only supervisor at IPRA who resist[ed] making requested changes as directed by management in order to reflect the correct finding with respect to [officer-involved shootings]”, according to performance records obtained by WBEZ. Davis, a former longtime Chicago police officer, has filed a wrongful-termination lawsuit against the review authority. “The importance of releasing the video is it helps promote the change in transparency that everybody wants and the mayor has pledged”.
