Judge Orders Release of Another Chicago Cop Shooting VIdeo

A lawyer for the family of a 17-year-old black carjacking suspect fatally shot by a white Chicago police officer in 2013 hopes video of the shooting just released by the city will prompt a new look at the case and possibly even lead to the reopening of a criminal investigation.

Officer Fry says he fired fearing for his and his partners’ lives when Chatman, fleeing on foot, turned his body slightly to the right, back toward the officers, with a dark object in his hand. The officers claim he turned around and pointed a black object at them, an object which turned out to be a black iPhone box. In a surprise court filing Wednesday, though, the city dropped its opposition, citing the ongoing work of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Task Force on Police Accountability, which is expected to issue recommendations in March on the city’s long-standing policy of keeping police shooting videos from the public.

Officials in Chicago have released a grainy footage that shows an unarmed black teeanger being shot dead by a police officer, after the city had sought to have the footage suppressed. That shows white officer Jason Van Dyke fatally shooting black teenager Laquan McDonald 16 times in 2014.

A federal judge has sharply criticized the city of Chicago for fighting the release of a police shooting video for weeks only to suddenly reverse course and call for its release.

Davis, who was previously a longtime Chicago police officer, has filed a wrongful-termination lawsuit against the review authority, claiming that his superiors tried to push him to soften his findings in six cases, including the Chatman shooting. Chatman scoots through parked cars and toward an intersection. Fry’s partner, Officer Lou Toth, grabbed Chatman’s arm and placed handcuffs on his wrists. But as protests and commentary around high-profile cases have mounted, the need to fill an information vacuum with video evidence has gained supremacy over the idea that prosecutors have wide discretion to withhold evidence until trial.

“The video supports Officer Fry’s observation that (Chatman) was pointing a firearm at Officer Toth”, the final IPRA report said, concluding that the “use of deadly force was in compliance with Chicago Police Department policy”. Officer Kevin Fry fired four shots, mortally wounding Cedrick.

Chatman’s family have sued the city over the shooting and asked to release the video to show he was unarmed.

But unlike the now-infamous dash-cam video of McDonald being shot 16 times, the videos in the Chatman case are dark and somewhat indistinct, showing mostly distant views of the shooting.

But, the judge added, “the video is not as clear” in showing “exactly what Chatman’s position was or what he had in his hand” when he was shot. A 911 call recording shows that the person who was carjacked was bleeding from the face and said, “I was beat… they dragged me out the vehicle”, though the person did not say if the attackers had weapons. “I think those are necessary things that will help, hopefully, to save lives”. “You’re going to see a young kid running away from police in broad daylight and he is shot and killed”. An area judge has condemned Fry’s actions, saying he put both Toth and innocent bystanders at risk when he opened fire.

Questions about the Chatman video follow the November 24 release of another video that made headlines.

We talk with Brian Coffman, an attorney representing the boy’s family.

The family has filed a civil lawsuit over the Cedrick’s death.

“It’s not really practicing transparency”, said William Calloway, who had pushed for the release of the Chatman video.