News / Society

Video released of Chicago police chasing and killing back teen

Saturday, 06 August 2016 3:56 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 06 August 2016 4:04 AM ]

A screen grab shows the moments after Chicago police shot and killed 18-year-old Paul-O'Neal following a traffic incident on July 28. 2016.

Authorities in the US city of Chicago have released graphic video of police officers chasing a fleeing car in a violent encounter that led to the shooting death of an African-American teenager.

The footage, captured on July 28 from police body and dashboard cameras and released on Friday, shows several officers chasing 18-year-old Paul O'Neal in a residential neighborhood with shots being fired.

It does not show the gunfire that killed O'Neal, who was wanted on suspicion of car theft, but shows the events leading up to and after the fatal shooting and the teen bleeding on the ground.

O'Neal family attorney Michael Oppenheimer described the shooting as a cold-blooded execution.

“It's disturbing and it's violent and it's scary,” he said. “What I saw was pretty cold-blooded. There’s a lot of emotion there. There’s a lot of stuff. There's no question in my mind they ran this kid down and murdered him.”

Police said they saw a Jaguar S-Type convertible that had been reported stolen in a southwest suburb of Chicago and tried to “curb” the vehicle.

In the video, a Jaguar is seen scraping a police car and another parked car as an officer opens fire on it. At one point, someone is seen getting out of the car with several officers engaging in a chaotic foot chase. Some of the images then get jumbled and the suspect disappears from the view as gunshots ring out.

Police alleged that O'Neal fired at them before he was shot. In the footage, an officer is heard saying, “They shot at us too right?”

No weapon was found from the scene. A post-mortem examination determined that the teenager died from a gunshot to his back.

"My promise to the people of Chicago is that we will be guided by the facts and should wrongdoing be discovered; individuals will be held accountable for their actions," Chicago police superintendent Eddie Johnson said in a statement.

Three officers have reportedly been “relieved of police powers" over the deadly encounter.

The killing followed a flurry of deaths of unarmed African-American men at the hands of mostly white police officers. The incidents have triggered nationwide protests against police brutality, giving birth to the anti-racism Black Lives Matter movement.

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