Family of teen shot by Chicago cop says video traumatizing
Several prominent Chicago pastors have rejected Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s “olive branch of peace” and are demanding that his administration release yet another video in which a white police officer fatally shot a black teenager.
The family of a black teenager shot 16 times by a white Chicago police officer stepped forward Friday, weeks after a video of the 2014 killing set off days of protests, calls for the mayor’s resignation and demands for an overhaul of the police department.
“We see police officers shooting in the back”.
The video also highlighted inconsistencies with police reports from the incident.
Chicago officials fought the release of the video, arguing it could interfere with any resulting court case.
Emanuel also asked the city’s inspector general on Wednesday to launch yet another probe of the case. He fired the police chief and named a new head of the independent body that investigates police conduct. Squad-car footage was released late last month upon a judge’s order, and there have been protests nearly daily since.
Meanwhile, State Representative LaShawn Ford, a Chicago Democrat, filed a bill on Wednesday in Springfield to allow for the recall of Emanuel.
Neslund also wondered why Alvarez, who ultimately charged Van Dyke more than a year after McDonald’s death, has been criticized while federal prosecutors have largely avoided reproach. But at the time of her son’s death, McDonald’s mother was making efforts to regain custody of him.
The attorney for the Johnson family said the prosecutors’ investigation was a “joke”. One fires the stun gun, and an officer then drags Coleman, who was black, out by his handcuffed wrists.
The petition could be filed as an ordinance, said Dick Simpson, a University of IL at Chicago political science professor and former Chicago alderman. But his family said it was obvious from the start that he was mentally ill and would still be alive if he had been taken to a hospital instead of jail.
An attorney for McDonald’s family said they, too, did not want the video made public, explaining that they were still grieving.
On Friday, Hunter recalled his nephew as a “jokester”, who always greeted family and friends with a huge hug.
Alvarez blamed the delay on the complexities of investigating a police shooting.
Seventeen-year-old Cedrick Chatman was a suspect in a auto theft when he was killed in January 2013 by police. Officers contend they thought the teen was reaching for a gun that proved to be a smartphone box.
The city negotiated a $5 million settlement with the family.
Despite having pledged more transparency, the city is fighting the release of that footage.
The city had refused to release the video to a journalist, saying doing so could affect an ongoing investigation into the shooting.
Emanuel spokeswoman Shannon Breymaier was part of an e-mail chain questioning whether the city could release video of the shooting.