Protests of teen’s shooting death to continue

The lack of audio means it remains unclear whether officers made any comments before or after the shooting, or if they gave any commands to McDonald before Van Dyke opened fire.

About 30 seconds later, Van Dyke shot McDonald 16 times in the middle of a Chicago road.

“A clear transparent process is the only way we can begin to build trust in our communities with law enforcement”, Roderick Sawyer, from the Chicago Black Caucus, told Al Jazeera. If we can not guarantee an honest account from the officers themselves, we must obtain it in other ways.

As a result, the sounds of 16 gunshots that hit the teen, any commands shouted by police officers or other remarks are not available, the newspaper said late on Wednesday. He was gunned down by Jason Van Dyke, a white Chicago officer, in October 2014.

McDonald, who was black, was shot 16 times in 2014.

Four people were arrested Wednesday during Chicago’s second night of confrontations between demonstrators and police officers – a response to this week’s release of video showing a black teen’s death at the hands of a white cop.

The Chicago Police Department had argued that releasing the video would taint multiple investigations.

At Tuesday’s hearing, Assistant State’s Attorney Bill Delaney said the shooting lasted 14 or 15 seconds and that McDonald was on the ground for 13 of those seconds.

However, it seems that a coverup by the police department was in the works before a whistleblower delivered the video and his account to journalist Jamie Kalven and lawyer Craig Futterman past year for fear that McDonald’s killing “wasn’t being vigorously investigated”, Kalven told the Chicago Reporter.

But activists and attorneys countered that the public had a right to see the video, which was captured by a police vehicle dashboard camera.

“Why did it take so long to make public the tape?”

About two dozen demonstrators marched into city hall threatened protests on Black Friday in Chicago’s main shopping area. McDonald spins around and falls to the pavement as Van Dyke keeps shooting.

The authorities in Chicago, a city of 2.7 million people, had girded for the possibility of civil unrest on a scale seen in cities such as Baltimore and Ferguson, Missouri, but the city remained mostly tranquil by Wednesday night.

On Tuesday, Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder in the shooting of McDonald. Some also are demanding the resignation of Chicago police Superintendent Garry McCarthy and Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, accusing them of mishandling the case, according to statements.

Van Dyke, who turned himself in to authorities Tuesday, is no longer being paid by the police department.

Jay Travis has lived on the South Side of Chicago for 43 years and knows this story all too well – a young black male is killed by police and nothing is done about it.

Activists also want a special prosecutor assigned to the Van Dyke case.

Alvarez’s office did not respond to questions Wednesday about whether her office had reached a conclusion as to why there was no sound of conversations inside the squad cars or over police radio on the videos.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Officer Van Dyke is being held without bail.

McCarthy recommended firing officer Dante Servin for the shooting of 22-year-old Rekia Boyd, saying Servin showed “incredibly poor judgment”.