Chicago Releases Videos From Police Officers’ Killing of 18-Year-Old.
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Officials released footage on Friday of the moments
before a deadly police shooting of an 18-year-old, Paul O’Neal, in
Chicago last week. The video shows the police firing into an allegedly
stolen car.
By SHANE O’NEILL and MEGAN SPECIA on Publish Date August 5, 2016.
Photo by Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune, via Associated Press.
CHICAGO — An agency that investigates Chicago police conduct released dramatic videos on Friday showing
two officers firing their guns at a fleeing stolen car in a fast-paced,
chaotic clash last week that led to another officer fatally shooting an
unarmed 18-year-old black man in the back.
The
videos were taken on July 28 from police body cameras and dashboard
cameras, with some of the images jumbled as the officers ran, and the
sound punctuated by gunfire and the officers’ own shouting and labored
breathing. They show two officers firing at least 10 rounds in the span
of three or four seconds at a stolen Jaguar after it narrowly missed
hitting one of the officers.
Seconds
later, the Jaguar crashed head-on into a police S.U.V. and an occupant
of the stolen car, Paul O’Neal, fled on foot. He disappeared from view
behind a house as officers gave chase, and then several more shots rang
out. Shortly afterward, officers are seen gathering around Mr. O’Neal,
handcuffing him as he lay on the ground, and talking to each other about
what had just happened.
What
the videos do not show is the fatal shooting itself. The officer who
shot Mr. O’Neal was wearing a body camera, but officials have said it was not recording;
the Police Department said it was investigating whether the device was
not turned on or if it had malfunctioned, and why. The medical
examiner’s office reported that he was shot in the back.
After watching the videos with Mr. O’Neal’s mother and sister, their lawyer, Michael Oppenheimer, called his death a murder.
“We
just came from watching Chicago police officers execute Paul O’Neal,”
he told reporters. “It is one of the most horrific things I have seen,
aside from being in a movie. These police officers decided to play
judge, jury and executioner.”
At
a news conference later, Mr. O’Neal’s sister, Briana Adams, 22, broke
down repeatedly as she tried to talk about a brother she described as
“everybody’s best friend,” who would cajole her out of a bad mood and
had plans to go to a trade school. With tears streaming down her face,
she said, “We just want answers, the truth, that’s it.”
What
the videos show is “shocking and disturbing,” said Sharon Fairley, the
chief administrator of the Independent Police Review Authority, the city
agency that investigates reports of misconduct, and that released the
videos.
The
city’s police superintendent, Eddie Johnson, praised the agency for
releasing the video and pledged the department’s cooperation in the
investigation. “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,” he said in a statement.
Mr.
Oppenheimer charged that the absence of a recording from the officer
who shot Mr. O’Neal was intentional, part of a cover-up by the officers,
and he called for a special prosecutor to take over the investigation
immediately.
The
shooting is another blow to a city already suffering from high crime
and mistrust between the police and black residents, and a setback for a
department that is trying to shed a reputation for excessive force and
secrecy. Still, the release of the video eight days after a shooting
marks a striking turn for a department and a watchdog agency that have
long been accused of withholding information about police misconduct.
The
three officers who fired their guns were stripped of police authority
pending an investigation — an unusually swift response, and harsher than
ones the department has taken in the past. Mr. Johnson said the videos
indicated the officers may have violated departmental policy.
Dean
C. Angelo, Sr., president of the local police union, called for a
careful, impartial review of what occurred. “While there are multiple
aspects to consider pertaining to the released videos, it is important
to be mindful of how rapidly this event unfolded,” he said in a written
statement. “While this case remains fluid in nature, it is of critical
importance to every Chicagoan to not rush to judgment and to allow the
systems in place to play out.”
Anthony
Guglielmi, a spokesman for the Police Department, said department
officials would not specify what the officers might have done wrong
because it is the police review agency’s job to make such
determinations.
But
in 2015, a department policy was revised to restrict circumstances in
which officers may fire their guns into a moving car. The new rule bars
officers from shooting into a vehicle when the vehicle is the only
threat against them; in this case, the officers kept firing after the
car had passed them.
In
firing at the car, the officers were also firing in the direction of
the police S.U.V. the Jaguar collided with moments later. That raises
the possibility that the officers in the S.U.V. thought they were being
shot at.
The
officers’ own recorded conversations after the shooting hint at how
unclear the picture might have been. “Who was that shooting in the
alley?” one asks.
“They shot at us, too, right?” an officer asks.
At one point, an officer laments, “I’m going to be on the desk for 30 goddamn days now.”
“I shot him,” the officer says. Pointing at another officer, he says, “He almost hit him.”
For more than a year, the city refused to make public video of an officer shooting Laquan McDonald,
17, releasing it in November only after being ordered to by a judge.
Officer Jason Van Dyke, who shot Mr. McDonald 16 times, has been charged
with murder.
That
video caused an uproar in Chicago and around the country, as Mr.
McDonald joined a long list of black people whose deaths at the hands of
the police have prompted a national debate about law enforcement and
race relations. The angry reaction to his death, and the Chicago Police
Department’s handling of it, became a political crisis for Mayor Rahm
Emanuel, spurred promises of reforms, and prompted the mayor to fire the previous police superintendent, Garry McCarthy.
The
city later adopted a policy that video of police shootings should be
made public within 60 days, and even by that standard, the release in
the O’Neal case was remarkably quick.
In
a statement, Mr. Emanuel noted a shift. “I support Superintendent
Johnson’s quick and decisive action over the past eight days, which I
believe underscores the fundamental change in how the city handles
police shootings,” he said. “I know Sharon Fairley is already
investigating this case, and I have faith that she will reach a
conclusion and issue recommendations with all deliberate speed.”
As
video recording has become ubiquitous, it has come to be seen as the
ultimate evidence when there are charges of police misconduct. But many
cases have shown that the evidence can be murky and subject to differing
interpretations, and even when police critics think the evidence is
clear, it often does not lead to prosecution of the officers.
Ms.
Fairley, in a statement, urged people to remember that the video is
just one among many pieces of evidence “to be gathered and analyzed when
conducting a fair and thorough assessment of the conduct of police
officers in performing their duties.”
On
the evening he was killed, Mr. O’Neal was riding in a Jaguar
convertible that had been reported stolen, driving through the city’s
South Side about 7:30 p.m. It was still daylight. The car was chased by
the police through a neighborhood of well-kept houses.
Two officers in an S.U.V. who joined the chase turned a corner and found themselves headed straight toward the stolen car.
They
fired at the car as it passed and sped away, just before it hit the
other S.U.V. They then joined the chase through backyards to the back
entrance of a home where Mr. O’Neal, his back soaked in blood beneath a
backpack, lay dead or dying.
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