New video shows 13-year-old boy had hands up when shot by Chicago police
Teen’s family says he is in danger of never walking again after sustaining a spinal injury from the shooting
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A new video of a 13-year-old Black teen who was gunned down by Chicago police last month shows he had his hands raised and appeared to be unarmed at the time.
The seventh-grader, identified only as AG, was shot by officers of the Chicago police department during a foot pursuit on 18 May.
Chicago police said the teen was fleeing from a stolen car when the incident occurred. A number of witness testimonies, however, had already stated that the teen had his hands raised and did not seem to be carrying any weapon.
The new surveillance video footage, accessed by the Daily Beast, now appears to confirm the testimonies. It showed the Black teen running off the pavement towards the light of a gas station parking lot with his hands visibly raised in the air and no weapon in sight.
He then turns around to his right and is suddenly shot by an officer, leading to him collapsing on the ground in front of the gas station, the video showed.
Officers can be seen surrounding AG and holding him by his legs, as his arm briefly drags on the pavement.
According to the Daily Beast, Chicago police superintendent David Brown had previously claimed that dragging the boy like this was done with the intention to avoid harm from an explosion at the gas pump following the shooting.
The teen, who was being chased by almost a dozen officers seen in the video, did not have any charges against him and no weapon was fired by him or found on him. The chase began after he was spotted in a car the police were trying to stop and he started running.
Mr Brown said an officer fired a bullet after the teenager turned towards them. The Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA), the agency that investigates police shootings, confirmed last week that no weapon was found at the scene.
The agency said it had body cam footage from one of the officers at the scene but can not release it because the boy is a minor.
The incident led to an uproar with a lawsuit filed by the family in May that alleged the Chicago police officers shot him “recklessly, callously and wantonly” and that AG had complied with the officer’s instructions.
“CPD officers did not render immediate aide to AG, but instead callously dragged him across the pavement and then turned their attention to an uninjured officer who crashed into a sign at the gas station while arriving on scene,” read the complaint.
The teen, who survived the incident, sustained a major spinal injury and is in danger of never walking again, according to the family.
They allege “he has been permanently and catastrophically injured” and “at this point doesn’t have movement of his legs”.