Jan. 15--Did Officer Kevin Fry have cause to shoot 17-year-old Cedrick Chatman on Jan. 7, 2013? You can see the videos released Thursday and judge for yourself.
Surveillance footage from cameras mounted on traffic signals and nearby buildings show a figure identified as Chatman emerge from the driver's side of a silver Dodge Charger and bolt across the street, pursued by Fry.
From one angle we see Fry raise his weapon and fire. From another we see Chatman crumpled in the street.
An attorney representing Chatman's family in a wrongful death suit had promised the videos would show there was no need for Fry to shoot because Chatman had no gun and did not pose a threat.
Police at the scene said Chatman pointed a dark object at them as he ran, and Fry fired because he feared for his life.
The videos are disturbing, but they also appear to be inconclusive. The cameras are at a distance. And they're only part of the evidence that could be used in court to piece together the incident near 75th Street and Jeffery Boulevard.
Chatman was driving the stolen Charger when he was stopped by Fry and his partner. The dark object he was carrying as he ran turned out to be a cellphone box. Two men who were in the car with Chatman later pleaded guilty to robbery and carjacking.
Attorneys for the city had argued against releasing the videos, claiming they would inflame the public and compromise the civil trial. But they dropped their opposition this week, citing an evolving policy of greater transparency.
The city's long-standing practice has been to fight the release of such evidence until all legal proceedings are completed. That practice backfired dramatically when another judge ordered the release of dash-cam video that showed Officer Jason Van Dyke shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times.
The city withheld that video for more than a year, during which Van Dyke remained on paid desk duty and Mayor Rahm Emanuel fought for re-election. Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder the day the video was released.
The timing was suspect -- and the video utterly damning.
That's not true in the Chatman case. Nor was it true of the video showing Officer George Hernandez shooting a fleeing Ronald Johnson III on Oct. 12, 2014, near 53rd Street and King Drive.
