Chicago authorities have released video of an unarmed teen Paul O’ Neal being shot and killed by officers, including one who laments that he will receive “desk duty” for his actions.
Officers opened fire at the 18-year-old on July 28, striking him in the back as he fled in a Jaguar and then ran behind a home.
The Windy City’s Independent Police Review Authority released body camera footage of the events leading up to the shooting on Friday morning.
There is no footage of the shots that killed the teen, though they can be heard.
The officer who fired the fatal shots was wearing a body camera as well, though police have not said why his device did not capture the incident.
A group of officers gathered around O’Neal as he lies on the ground bleeding shove and handcuff him.
One policeman in the profanity-laden clip calls him a “motherf—er” as another searches the teen’s backpack.
“He shot back right?” one policeman who fired at the fleeing car is heard asking as the scene calms down.
The same officer’s bodycamera captures him slapping hands and giving a shoulder hug to a colleague.
“It is one of the most horrific things I have seen,” Michael Oppenheimer, a lawyer for O’Neals family, told the Chicago Tribune.
He said that much of the family was too distraught to speak after seeing officers “execute” their loved one, and added that a special prosecutor should be appointed to handle the case.
O’Neal’s sister Briana Adams, 22, later spoke briefly about the video, saying it was “disturbing, very disturbing.”
She said that she thought it was important to see the video because she doesn’t “want anyone to lie to my face” and wants to find out the truth about her brother’s death.
Another officer who fired shots as the teen was running from his car laments that he will likely be put on restricted duty for opening fire.
“F—ing desk duty for 30 days now. Motherf—er,” he says.
The three unidentified officers who fired were stripped of their badges last week as outrage quickly built over O’Neals death.
Chicago’s Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson praised the transparency of the video release and said, “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.”
“The shooting of Mr. O’Neal has raised a lot of questions about whether departmental policies were followed.”
Aside from whatever policy may have been violated with the fatal shots, Chicago’s use of force policy prohibits officers from firing into vehicles when a car is the only danger.
Police say O’Neal hit two police cars with the Jaguar convertible, which police believe he had stolen, after officers tried to stop him in the city’s South Shore neighborhood.
Video of the his death comes after footage of police shooting another Chicago teen, 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, led to longrunning protests in the city and around the country.
Jason Van Dyke, who shot McDonald 16 times, faces a murder charge.
After that shooting, Chicago policy now calls for releasing video of fatal police shootings to the public within 60 days.
The videos released Friday by IPRA, which is investigating the shooting, also appear to show some officers telling their colleagues to turn off their cameras during the aftermath.
Some questioned the circumstances behind the body camera of the officer who fired the fatal shots not working.
“A Chicago Youth Is Killed. The Camera Cutoff Is A Cover-Up. Murder is Murder. #PaulOneal,” activist Rev. Jesse Jackson posted on Twitter.
Residents of the predominantly black South Shore neighborhood, who say that where they live is quiet and middle-class, questioned why officers responded to the alleged car theft with gunfire.
“”I don’t envy the police. They don’t have an easy job. But this was a car. Nobody had been killed yet,” former Chicago Bears safety Charles Brown, who lives across the street, told the Tribune.
“Nobody wins. The police lose. The community loses. The parents have to bury a child.”
