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 Laquan McDonald was shot 16 times by a police officer, including
multiple times in the back. Police said he was lunging at them with
a knife, but a lawyer who has seen the video says it shows McDonald
moving away from the police with a knife in his hand.
McDonald's death came at a time of heated national debate and
protests over police use of lethal force, especially against blacks.
Freelance journalist Brandon Smith sued the police after they denied
his request for the video under the Illinois Freedom of Information
Act, and a judge decided in Smith's favor on Thursday.
"Police officers are entrusted to uphold the law, and to provide
safety to our residents. In this case unfortunately, it appears an
officer violated that trust at every level," Mayor Rahm Emanuel said
in a statement.
In April, Chicago agreed to pay $5 million in civil damages to
McDonald's family, which had been exploring filing a wrongful death
lawsuit.
 Emanuel said the city will release the video by Nov. 25, the
deadline set on Thursday by Cook County Circuit Court Judge Franklin
Valderrama. Earlier the city had indicated it would appeal the case.
The mayor said he expected prosecutors to quickly conclude their
year-long investigation of the case.
The Chicago Police Department had said releasing the video could
taint ongoing Illinois state and federal investigations of the
officer, whose identity and race have not been disclosed by the
department.
In an 18-page ruling, Valderrama said the police could not apply an
exemption to Freedom of Information Act rules.
Valderrama said the police department failed to show that it was
conducting its own investigation of the shooting or that disclosure
of the video would interfere with investigations.
Fatal police shootings in Chicago averaged 17 a year between 2008
and 2014, according to data from Chicago's police review authority.
About three-quarters of people shot by Chicago police were black;
the city's population is about one-third black. Almost all shootings
were found to be justified.
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TEEN'S MOTHER APPREHENSIVE
"We have a duty to hold accountable the people that we pay to
protect us," said Smith, the freelance journalist who filed the
lawsuit after what he described as months of delays from the police
department over his Freedom of Information Act request for the
video. "In this case they fought transparency."
After the 2014 police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson,
Missouri, sparked protests around the United States, some cities
have opted to immediately release video of shootings in the name of
transparency. Other cities have been reluctant to release them.
"This is about justice; this is about transparency. I hope what we
are doing today sets precedent not only in Chicago but across the
nation," said community activist William Calloway.
Jeffrey Neslund, a lawyer for McDonald's mother, Tina Hunter, said
she was not part of the battle to release the video.
"Like any mother, she doesn't want to see the execution of her son
over and over again on YouTube and television. It's graphic, it's
disturbing, and it's crystal clear that Laquan was not attacking or
lunging at any police officer," Neslund said.
(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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