“You shot at us, motherf-ker!”
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In one video taken after the shooting, O’Neal is shown lying face down, with a blood stain on the back of his shirt as three officers try to put handcuffs on him. One officer placed his boot atop O’Neal’s leg as the teen was cuffed. Another holds down the mortally wounded man’s head.
Suspected vehicle thief Paul O’Neal, 18, who was unarmed, died on July 28th after officers tried to stop him in a Jaguar convertible that had been reported stolen.
This video footage, which was released on Friday, prompted Chicago police to warn of “civil unrest” and potential violence against cops.
O’Neal’s death marks yet another incident in recent years where the release of video depicting Chicago police killing an African-American teenager has sparked public outcry in the city. Afterward, we see footage of officers handcuffing the subject who appears to be bleeding from his back as he lays on the ground motionless.
Angelo said in a statement that because the shooting of 18-year-old Paul O’Neal last week occurred in a matter of moments, “each individual perspective needs to be taken into consideration”.
“They can only take so much”, he said. “Once the gunshots started, they immediately left the room. crying, breaking down”.
O’Neal’s family lawyer, Michael Oppenheimer, called it a cold-blooded murder and accused the police officers of taking law into their own hands. He was one of the cops who opened fire on the auto, but it’s unclear whose bullets hit O’Neal.
“I really want everybody to know that Paul was loved by my mother, his family, me”, she said. O’Neal then rams into a police van, and flees the Jaguar on foot. Federally enforced changes could come from that ongoing investigation, and Emanuel has announced or enacted a raft of reforms to policing and officer oversight. O’Neal then ran from the vehicle, police said.
Police spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said the officer’s body camera could have been deactivated when the stolen Jaguar slammed into his squad vehicle and set off the air bags. “There are a lot of questions to answer and a lot of work to do to continue to build the trust that is so important between the police and community that we serve”, he said.
Before the release of the videos, Sharon Fairley, IPRA’s chief administrator, said in a statement that the agency is proceeding “as deliberately and expediently as possible in pursuit of a swift but fair determination” into the teen’s shooting.
Three officers have since been “relieved of police powers”.
The release marks the first time the city will make public such material in a fatal police shooting under a new policy that calls for it to do so within 60 days.
Johnson was named in March to lead the department, which is facing accusations of racism and a federal investigation into its practices after the city waited more than a year to release video of a separate 2014 fatal shooting by officers. And earlier this year, a task force established by the mayor released a report accusing the police of widespread racism. “It’s not easy being the police”, Johnson said at a news conference in the lobby of police headquarters.
“That’s why policemen, their professional acumen builds over time”, he said, adding: “And it’s easy for us to sit back after the fact when we have time, we’re at home, in our offices or just look at the video when we have hours and we can go back and dissect it”, Johnson said. Now he’s chairman of the Police Survivors group and he says the public shouldn’t rush to judgment, because the footage doesn’t tell the full story. Chicago cops are prohibited from firing at a moving vehicle if the auto “is the only force used against the [police] or another person”, which was the case for O’Neal.
Observers say officers erred by firing at O’Neal as he tried to speed away because department protocols prohibit such a tactic unless a motorist is armed and firing at police.
Videos contain graphic language and content.
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Late Friday afternoon, there was calm on the streets of Chicago.
