Johnson’s move came hours after the Cook County medical examiner’s office ruled the death of Paul O’Neal a homicide.
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An 18-year-old suspect who was shot by Chicago police died from a gunshot wound to the back, according to autopsy results released Saturday.
Police had stopped the stolen convertible Thursday evening in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood and were getting out of their cruisers when O’Neal attempted to flee in the luxury vehicle. Chicago Police First Deputy Superintendent John Escalante says the driver of the Jaguar, identified as O’Neal, then put the vehicle in drive, sideswiping a squad auto and a parked vehicle.
Since the investigation is still ongoing, Johnson did not shed light on the departmental policies that the three officers may have violated.
Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson addressed the fatal police shooting of an 18-year-old man Sunday, one day after relieving the third and final officer involved of all police powers.
O’Neal, of the 1700 block of East 70th Street, was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he died at 9:08 p.m. The two of the officers involved in the shooting have been relieved from their police powers and been suspended.
Investigators from Chicago’s Independent Police Review Authority, which investigates police misconduct cases and officer-involved shootings, arrived at the scene Thursday and obtained footage from cameras that the officers were wearing or were mounted on their squad cars.
Johnson told reporters the dashcam and body camera videos from the shooting left “more questions than answers”.
O’Neal was shot and killed Thursday night during a stolen vehicle investigation.
Three Chicago police officers have been stripped of their law enforcement authority after shooting and killing a young Black man with a bullet to his back in an incident where “departmental policies may have been violated”, police said Saturday.
Some officers suffered “injuries during the vehicle apprehension” and were taken to a hospital with injuries not considered life-threatening, the statement said.
The release of video showing a police officer fatally shooting Laquan McDonald 16 times prompted protests a year ago.
Three officers fired their weapons during the incident, which unfolded after O’Neal reportedly sideswiped a squad vehicle and hit a parked auto while driving a stolen Jaguar. A third officer got out of their vehicle and fired, what police believe, was the fatal shot. The city’s Independent Police Review Authority is investigating.
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He added that he understood officers must make split-second decisions, while others can later view video and other evidence to decide whether officers acting appropriately or not. 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”. “But we also have to understand honest mistakes can be made at the same time”.
