Paul O’Neal video sparks more protests in Chicago

Newly released police video of the events leading up to the death of 18-year-old Paul O’Neal sparked another night of protests Sunday in Chicago that wound through the Loop and north onto the Magnificent Mile.

Police chased O’Neal into the South Shore neighborhood around 7:30 p.m. July 28 after he allegedly stole a Jaguar from west suburban Bolingbrook. Video released Friday shows a chaotic scene leading up to O’Neal’s fatal shooting by police, with the dying teen being handcuffed in a growing pool of blood.

“We are here today fighting for the people, six feet under, whose death ignited a nation,” Ashanti Lumpkin, 17, told a crowd as it gathered Sunday before the protest march at Millennium Park’s Wrigley Square. “We are here today to fight so the next generation won’t have to. We are here today to let them know that we will not go away. We will not be silenced. And we will keep fighting until justice is won. Enough is enough.”

The evening march shut down portions of Michigan and Chicago avenues and Adams, State and Lake streets. Organizers tried to work cooperatively with officers who lined the march, even high-fiving a few as they worked together to guide the crowd through the city in an orderly fashion.

But some people still shouted chants that compared the CPD to the KKK, and some protesters could be seen taunting officers and even spitting on police cars.

Protesters at one point paused their march and sat down at State and Lake, throwing their arms in the air and yelling “Hands up, don’t shoot!”

At times, the march spanned roughly two city blocks. At others, it shrank to about half a block.

Eventually, the group wound its way north across the Michigan Avenue bridge, giving tourists an up-close look at the anger sparked by police shootings in Chicago. Some motorists even got out of their cars — having been stopped in traffic anyway — to take photos and video with their smartphones as protesters passed boutique stores like Tiffany & Co., Nieman Marcus and the Disney Store.

Protesters shouted the names of others in police-involved deaths, including Rekia Boyd, Cedric Chatman and Laquan McDonald.

Video from body cameras worn by two police officers showed O’Neal’s black Jaguar bearing down on a police SUV as the officers leapt out of their vehicle with guns drawn. As O’Neal swerved to avoid their squad car, the Jaguar sideswiped the SUV and narrowly missed one of the officers, and both officers opened fire on the speeding car as it passed.

The body camera of the officer who fired the deadly shot wasn’t working, police said, and the Independent Police Review Authority has said there is no other camera angle that shows the fatal shot.

“You f – – – – – – shoot at us?” one officer asks the prone O’Neal as he is handcuffed.

Police have said O’Neal was unarmed.

Contributing: Stefano Esposito and Andy Grimm

Gallery