Video released of Chicago cop fatally shooting Laquan McDonald

Writing on his Facebook page, the US President said: “Like many Americans, I was deeply disturbed by the footage of the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald”.

The Chicago Police Department has released the chilling footage of a Chicago police officer fatally shooting a teenager 16 times in 2014.

The video shows McDonald jogging down the middle of a street.

The demonstrations, which at times blocked some of Chicago’s busy Interstate highways, were largely peaceful, some turned confrontational during the night.

Quovadis Green, with the organization One Chicago, calls for the removal of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, along with other police officials during a news conference at City Hall, Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2015, in Chicago, one…

The details of the shooting, enumerated in court and police documents, are troubling and sketch an outline of a gruesome death for McDonald, who was reportedly fleeing from a group of police officers while holding a knife when he was shot twice by Van Dyke, then shot 14 more times even after he had fallen to the ground with critical wounds.

Activists have compared his killing with that of black teenager Michael Brown, who was shot dead a year ago by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.

Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said that while “people have a right to be angry” and to protest peacefully, his officers would be “intolerant of criminal behavior”. The Tribune reported that the Chicago Police Department requires its officers to use in-car video if the vehicle is equipped with it.

The release of the video itself has been controversial.

“Prosecuting police officers is always very challenging and I’m certain they wanted to know if there were other witnesses that’d seen what happened before and maybe had it from a different angle”, he said.

Cook County’s chief prosecutor, Anita Alvarez, acknowledged that she timed the filing of the first-degree murder charge against Van Dyke to precede the video’s disclosure in a bid to mute harsh public reaction to the footage.

Those tapes include the one widely shown on Tuesday, which provides the most complete coverage of the shooting released to date.

Emanuel and McCarthy described the shooting of McDonald as an unusual and tragic incident and called on the public to protest peacefully, with the mayor noting that McDonald’s family had asked people not to resort to violence in the teen’s name.

One of the videos, out of focus as it is, appears to be from the police vehicle in which Van Dyke was a passenger.

This view from Officer Van Dyke’s SUV showed McDonald running.

Chicago police said Thursday they will continue to protect demonstrators’ First Amendment rights.

However, in order to keep the video confidential and save face, the police department reached a US$5 million settlement with the family. Officer Jason Van Dyke, who is white, has been charged with first-degree murder in the killing.

He is being held without bond.

“The information indicates that officers leaving the police stations could be targeted because officers will not be on guard or ready if fired upon”, the alert says.