CHICAGO—Surveillance video was released Thursday showing the 2013 fatal shooting of a 17-year-old black carjacking suspect by a white police officer, but the primary footage is grainy and doesn’t reveal whether the teen turned toward the pursuing officers or was holding anything, as they claimed.
A federal judge ordered the video of Cedrick Chatman’s last moments after the city withdrew its objection to it being made public. Since the November release of video showing a white officer shooting a black teenager 16 times in 2014, city leaders and the police department have come under intense scrutiny over cases of alleged misconduct amid calls for greater transparency.
The video released Thursday was shot by several cameras and from various angles. Overhead video that city attorneys consider to be the primary footage shows Chatman bolt across the street from a car with Officer Lou Toth on his heels. Chatman scoots through parked cars and then toward a nearby intersection.
Officer Kevin Fry can be seen trailing farther back, aiming his gun at Chatman and firing as the teen began rounding the corner in front of a bodega. The camera then pans right and shows Toth crouching over Chatman.
Chatman’s mother is suing the city and the two police officers who pursued the teen. Her attorney, Brian Coffman, says the teen never turned toward the officers and posed no threat. The officers maintain their actions were justified.
Questions about the Chatman video follow the Nov. 24 release of another video that made headlines. That video shows white officer Jason Van Dyke fatally shooting black teenager Laquan McDonald 16 times in 2014. The city fought its release for more than a year, making it public only after a state court ordered it to do so. The video and the delay in releasing it led to protests, calls for Mayor Rahm Emanuel to resign and a federal civil-rights investigation of the Chicago Police Department.
