Laquan McDonald shooting: Police officer charged with murder of black teenager released on bail

A white police officer charged with the murder of a black teenager has been released from jail after posting bond, as protests continued over video footage showing the 17-year-old being shot 16 times.

A number of protesters, including the NAACP President Cornell William Brooks, were arrested as they tried to disrupt traffic in demonstration of the handling of the case.

Police officer Jason Van Dyke appeared in shackles at at hearing on Monday, where Cook County Criminal Court Associate Judge Donald Panarese, set bail at $1.5m, of which 10 per cent had to be posted. The police union president said members were helping Mr Van Dyke's family raise the amount needed to get him out of jail.

Reuters said that the officer was released on Monday evening after his family posted the $150,000 in bond money.

Last week, Mr Van Dyke was denied bail because the judge wanted to see the video first. Prosecutors asked on Monday that the previous ruling stand, but Mr Van Dyke’s lawyer, Daniel Herbert, said his client posed no flight risk.

Chicago has seen several days of peaceful protests since Mr Van Dyke, 37, was charged last Tuesday with first-degree murder for the October 2014 shooting of Laquan McDonald. On the same day, officials released the footage- which the authorities had long wanted to suppress – in response to a court order.

The video showed the teenager walking down the middle of a Chicago street carrying a small knife, and veering away from police officers who are standing next to their vehicles. The footage then showed the teenager being shot, falling to the ground, and then his body going to be riddled with bullets as he lay on the floor.

Protesters are angry not only about the shooting of he teenager, but that it took 13 months to release the footage and to charge the officer.

Mr Herbert said Van Dyke was prepared to defend himself. "He is very scared about the consequences that he's facing. He's concerned for his wife and his children. But he's handling it like a professional," he said.

“When you see the video alone it does not seem like a justifiable shooting," Mr Herbert said. But he said that consulting with Mr Van Dyke and experts in the field, he decided the case was “absolutely defensible”.

Dean Angelo, president of the local Fraternal Order of Police union, said he saw the video of the shooting, yet believed Mr Van Dyke took “action that he believed at that time to be justified.”

The case prompted an online threat that closed the University of Chicago on Monday. Jabari Dean, 21, a student at the nearby University of Illinois at Chicago, was arrested and charged with threatening to kill 16 white male students or staff in retaliation for the shooting of McDonald, federal prosecutors said.

Ten people were arrested for disrupting traffic on Monday, including Mr Brooks and several seminary students as they knelt to pray in the middle of LaSalle Street outside City Hall. The protest began with singing and marching around with empty caskets.