Video showing the Chicago police shooting that killed 18-year-old Paul O’Neal was released Friday. The videos released are from police car dashboard cameras and police body cameras. This compilation of released footage shows four different angles of the incident that led to O’Neal’s death. You can watch each individual video here.
The fatal shooting occurred on July 28, at 7:30 PM. The subject was unarmed and reportedly driving a stolen vehicle. The suspect struck multiple police vehicles in the pursuit. Two Chicago Police Officers opened fire on the suspect while he was still in the vehicle.
A third officer whose vehicle was struck by the stolen vehicle gave chase after the subject fled on foot. The subject was fatally shot by the third officer. The body camera of the officer who fatally shot the subject failed to record the incident. It is not believed that the officer intentionally disabled his body camera.
All three officers were placed on paid administrative duties as the result of violation of departmental policies.
In the minutes after the shooting, the officers’ comments made clear that at least one of them suspected O’Neal had shot at them.
“They shot at us, too, right?” one officer asked.
Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson was scheduled to speak on the release of the video around 1 p.m. A small group of protesters stood in front of the microphones, blocking Johnson, and refused to let him talk. The shouted their displeasure with the department. Eventually, Johnson decided to go back inside police headquarters.
Johnson released a statement after the video was made public Friday morning.
“I applaud the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA) and Chief Administrator Sharon Fairley for being so transparent and open with the video release and I want to pledge the full cooperation of the Chicago Police Department during this 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.
The shooting of Mr. O’Neal has raised a lot of questions about whether departmental policies were followed. While IPRA conducts a thorough investigation, we will not wait to look for ways we can learn from this incident.
I’ve challenged my team to take a hard look at the training and tactics from this incident, including looking at national best practices on use of force to determine how we can best serve our officers so that they can best serve the people of the city.
You can expect this department to be open and honest about what we discover and we will work together with our community partners to implement solutions.
In order to work toward making a better department we must acknowledge the things we can do better and that work starts today.”