The three policemen shot and killed the 18-year-old on Thursday after he sideswiped a squad auto and another vehicle with a stolen Jaguar he was driving as police tried to arrest him, the Chicago Police Department said in a statement.
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Paul O’Neal’s murder was as a result of police officers spotting the deceased in a Jaguar convertible presumably stolen. NO VIDEO OF THE SHOOTINGGreen called on the immediate release of video of the shooting, but said that O’Neal’s family is distraught and not interested in viewing the video. “That’s just what they’re focused on, but in this post-Laquan McDonald era, we all know that police accountability is a problem”, Calloway said.
Meanwhile, according to CBS, a 17-year-old boy was in the stolen Jaguar vehicle with O’Neal before the latter attempted to flee and was shot.
Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said the actual shooting was not recorded, although all officers on the scene were wearing body cameras.
But while no gun was found, the policy also says that officers “will not unreasonably endanger themselves or another person to conform to the restrictions of this directive”, meaning they had the right to defend themselves if they or someone else were in imminent danger of being struck by the vehicle.
By Saturday, all three officers involved in the shooting were put on administrative duty and stripped of their police powers indefinitely, what Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi described as a “deviation from normal protocol”.
“These officers have to make these decisions in a split second”, Johnson said. “So if it’s an honest mistake, then we will get them training, coaching, mentoring and get them back out there. If it’s intentional misconduct, they have to be held accountable for it”, he said. “As it appears right now, departmental policies may have been violated during the incident”.
A police spokesperson said that the body cameras “were working” and had been issued to police in that district in the past eight to ten days, but it was unclear how many times they had been used prior to the shooting.
Deep-seated distrust of law enforcement continues to plague relations between police and some Chicago communities. According to CPD, the officers just received the cameras about 8-10 days prior to the incident and they’re investigating to find out whether it was due to a malfunction with the camera or if it was due to “operator error”.
The lawsuit names the Chicago Police Department and the officers involved in the shooting.
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At the same time, Chicago has been rocked by violent crime. A third officer got out of their auto and fired, what police believe, was the fatal shot. The city had 65 homicides in July alone, with 362 shooting incidents and 441 shooting victims, according to the Chicago Police Department.
