Chicago authorities have released new footage of the incident in which Chicago police officers pursued and shot 17-year-old Cedrick Chatman in an alleged car theft stop, according to the New York Daily News. The video shows an officer shooting at the teen while he is running away.
The new footage of the confrontation was shared with the public on Thursday after city attorneys withdrew their objections and asked U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman to lift a protective order barring the release, according to The Guardian. The video had been withheld because of attorneys' fears that its release would have an impact on the opinions of potential jurors.
Chatman was fatally shot by Officer Kevin Fry during a foot case in 2013 after Chatman was stopped on claims of car theft, NBC Chicago reported. Fry claimed to have seen Chatman turn towards officers and pull a dark object from his waistband that Fry perceived as a gun. The object later turned out to be an iPhone box.
The video is too grainy and long-range to determine whether Chatman turned or pulled anything from his waistband, but the Chatman family's attorneys are taking it as proof that the teen never posed a threat to the officers, the New York Daily News noted.
Judge Gettleman criticized the way that the footage was handled by the city, telling the court "I'm very disturbed about the way this has happened. I went to a lot of trouble to decide this issue, and then I get this motion last night saying that this is the Age of Enlightenment with the city and we're going to be transparent."
Officer Fry was cleared of any wrongdoing in Chatman's shooting by the Independent Police Review Authority, but court filings claim that this was only done after the investigator who opposed that finding, Lorenzo Davis, was fired, according to The Independent.
