In February 2015, former Superintendent Garry McCarthy revised the department’s policy on the use of deadly force to prohibit officers from “firing at or into a moving vehicle when the vehicle is the only force used against the sworn member or another person”.
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It came amid a flurry of high-profile deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of police in recent years that have raised tensions between minority communities and law enforcement as well as renewed a debate about racial discrimination in the US criminal justice system.
Another police-involved shooting occurred on Chicago’s South Side Thursday, when officers wounded a man suspected of robbery in the city’s Englewood neighborhood.
Eddie Johnson, Chicago’s top police official, spoke on Sunday for the first time about the death of Paul O’Neal at the hands of police.
But while no gun was found, the policy also says that officers “will not unreasonably endanger themselves or another person to conform to the restrictions of this directive”, meaning they had the right to defend themselves if they or someone else were in imminent danger of being struck by the auto.
The move comes after the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office on Saturday released autopsy results that determined 18-year-old Paul O’Neal died of a gunshot wound to the back.
Two Chicago officers were stripped of their police authority on Friday after a preliminary investigation found they may have violated department policies during a shooting the day before, the department said.
“I think that he gets it”, Brown told the Chicago Tribune.
The three policemen shot and killed the 18-year-old on Thursday after auto chase where he allegedly sideswiped a squad auto and another vehicle with a stolen Jaguar he was driving as police tried to arrest him, the Chicago Police Department said in a statement. “Officers out there in the past have been very indifferent or disrespectful”.
The three officers involved remain a part of the police force and have been “assigned to administrative positions” according to a department statement.
He said those facts, coupled with the action Johnson took against the three officers, means that criminal charges should be considered. Another officer also shot at O’Neal as he tried to escape from the stolen auto after it crashed into another police vehicle. The driver of the Jaguar, Paul O’Neal, rammed one police vehicle head-on and sideswiped another. Under new city policy, video from the incident the must be released to the public within 60 days. ‘If it is intentional misconduct, then they have to be held accountable’.
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The release of video showing a police officer fatally shooting Laquan McDonald 16 times prompted protests a year ago.
