CHICAGO (AP) – The video is graphic, according to some who have seen it: A black teenager wielding a small knife is walking away from Chicago police officers when an officer opens fire, shooting the teen 16 times.
Police have refused to release footage of the October 2014 fatal shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, but a judge may order them to do so Thursday in response to a journalist’s public records request.
Investigators have said McDonald refused to drop a knife when officers confronted him while responding to a call about a person walking down a street with a knife on the city’s southwest side. The shooting was recorded on police dashcam video, but city attorneys said it wouldn’t be released until a federal grand jury finishes its investigation of the shooting.
McDonald’s mother also doesn’t want the video released. She fears it could lead to violent protests like those in Baltimore and Ferguson, Missouri, after police-involved deaths of black residents in those cities, according to the family’s attorney, Jeffrey Neslund.
Neslund, who has seen the video, said the footage shows McDonald was armed with a small knife. But he said it also clearly shows that the teen was walking away from police officers when a white officer, who was about 15 feet away, opened fire.