CHICAGO—A series of videos released Friday shows Chicago police firing repeatedly at a stolen car as it careens down the street, then handcuffing the mortally wounded black teenager who was at wheel after a chaotic foot chase through a residential neighborhood.
None of the nine videos show the suspected car thief getting shot in the back. Moments later, when PaulO'Neal is on the ground, blood soaking through his T-shirt, an officer can be heard angrily accusing him of firing at police. Another officer asks, “They shot at us too, right?” suggesting police believed they had been fired upon and that they did not know how many suspects were present.
No gun was recovered from the scene.
It was the city’s first release of video of a fatal police shooting under a new policy that calls for such material to be made public within 60 days. That and other policy changes represent an effort to restore public confidence in the department after video released last year showed a black teenager named Laquan McDonald getting shot 16 times by a white officer. That video sparked protests and led to the ouster of the former police superintendent.
On the latest body camera videos, an officer can be heard saying that he shot at the vehicle, explaining, “He almost hit my partner. I (expletive) shot at him.” Another officer who apparently fired his weapon laments that he was going to be on “desk duty for 30 (expletive) days now.”
