Chicago releases video of police killing black teen

Newly-released video footage shows a black teen running away from police in the US city of Chicago before being fatally shot by an officer.

The footage captured two years ago by surveillance cameras shows 17-year-old Cedrick Chatman fleeing after he stole a car.

Authorities had fought for months to keep the video from being released.

Lawyers of the family and community activists have criticized Chicago’s police department, saying they have seen no change come about as a result of the police misconduct.

Lawyer Mark Smolens said he hoped the release would initiate "system wide change in the way police misconduct is treated in the city of Chicago," and added "that's what this fight is about in the bigger picture."

Brian Coffman, also representing the Chatmans criticized the city for "keeping quiet" on the topic before going on to express concern that how change will be implemented is still unclear from the side of the law enforcement officials.

"They are still not being transparent and we are still not hearing details of how they are going to change," said Coffman.

It was officer Kevin Fry who shot and killed Chatman in January of 2013 in broad daylight but was never charged.

The video appears to contradict Fry’s accounts claiming his life was in danger at the time of the deadly encounter.

Fry fired four shots at the teenager, striking him with two bullets after allegedly seeing Chatman point an object at the officers. Coffman and Smolens say the newly released footage negates Fry's claim.

Now political commentator Steven D. Kelley says this individual may “have been guilty of a crime; however, he was executed on the street.”

“There’s no reason when a suspect like this is running away for them to be shot in the back at the distance when they pose no danger,” Kelley told Press TV on Friday.

He added that the solution to such violent episodes would clearly be a change in policy.  

The shooting sparked a flurry of criticism with protesters demanding the resignation of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel.

The US city has been in turmoil since last November, when another police officer was indicted for first-degree murder in the fatal October 2014 shooting of another black teenager.

Police brutality in the United States has raised nationwide debates amid a string of police killings of unarmed black men that has resulted in creating the Black Lives Matter movement.

Large-scale demonstrations were held across the country in 2014 after a series of high-profile incidents of white police officers killing unarmed African-American men, including Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri; Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Ohio; Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York and Walter Scott in North Charleston, South Carolina.

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