A post-mortem exam found that O’Neal was killed on by a gunshot wound to the back.
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Chicago Police Department is being sued by the 18-year-old’s family.
The post-mortem medical examination also confirmed that O’Neal was shot in the back. He said it is likely because the officer was unfamiliar with how to properly use the camera he only received shortly before the shooting or the camera malfunctioned. Police followed him and continued to open fire as he ran behind a residential home, where he was fatally shot.
No gun was recovered from the scene.
“It is one of the most horrific things I have seen”, Michael Oppenheimer, the family’s lawyer, said about the videos, according to The Chicago Tribune.
The video shows one officer shooting at the vehicle as it advanced towards his partner. In one of the videos, an officer who fired his weapon complains he’ll now be on desk duty for a month, which is department policy.
“If he was driving a stolen auto, that’s for the court system”.
This shooting is unlike the Philando Castile, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, or John Crawford cases in that the officers here were dealing with an actually risky situation-O’Neal was committing a fairly serious crime, resisting arrest, and endangering lives.
“I shot at the vehicle after it nearly hit you”, his partner replies. Authorities said McDonald was armed with a knife and had slashed at the tires and window of a patrol auto.
“They want us to be held accountable in our communities and break our code of silence”, Green says.
What the videos show is “shocking and disturbing”, said Sharon Fairley, the chief administrator of the Independent Police Review Authority, the city agency that investigates reports of misconduct and that released the videos. She did not elaborate.
Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson was scheduled to speak on the release of the video around 1 p.m. A small group of protesters stood in front of the microphones, blocking Johnson, and refused to let him talk.
Oppenheimer said the absence of a recording from the officer who shot O’Neal was intentional, part of a cover-up by the officers, and he called for a special prosecutor to take over the investigation. Both officers fire at the Jaguar as it drives away. Three officers have since been “relieved of police powers”. “But when they shoot us, the body cameras aren’t working”.
“What I saw was a cold-blooded murder”, he added. “The family was so distraught … that they have left”.
The videos show officers firing on the reportedly stolen Jaguar as it drove away from them, and their shots appear to place officers farther down the street in danger of being shot. “Get your hands behind your back!” the second officer says as he handcuffs O’Neal. Whatever the intent, the officers immediately stopped talking.
Adams said she will remember her younger brother as someone who was always smiling and always joking, was “best friend” to all he knew, had graduated high school, was ready to begin trade school and hoped to work for ComEd.
That same officer’s bodycam captures him slapping hands with a colleague and giving him a shoulder hug.
Chicago police said in a nationwide conference call and bulletin that there is a potential for “civil unrest” and potential violence against police in anticipation of the videos’ release.
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“These guys live in the neighborhoods”. “It doesn’t mean they did anything wrong, but someone may see it and perceive the officers should not have taken the actions they did”.
