Crime & Safety

Paul O'Neal Shooting Protesters March on Michigan Avenue Sunday

Peaceful demonstration winds through downtown Chicago streets, capping off three days of demonstrations after release of police video.

CHICAGO, IL — Demonstrators took to the streets again Sunday in response to a Chicago Police shooting video, halting traffic on Michigan Avenue as they marched through a few downtown thoroughfares from Millennium Park.

At times, interactions between police officers and protesters grew tense. Protesters spit on police cars and shouted in officers' faces. At other times, police officers and demonstration organizers even high-fived each other, according to a Chicago Sun-Times account, as they worked together to guide marchers through city streets.

Organizers informed police ahead of time of the route they would take on their march, reports DNAinfo Chicago, leaving Millennium Park for Michigan Avenue, State Street and Lake Street.

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A sit-in took place at the intersection of State and Lake.

Demonstrators hit the streets Friday, Saturday and Sunday in response to Friday morning's release of a video that showed the events preceding the death of Paul O'Neal, who was shot in the back by a police officer on July 28. O'Neal drove a stolen car at police in the South Shore community, striking two police vehicles. Officers fired on the car, then chased O'Neal on foot. He was shot in the back, then handcuffed as he lay dying. O'Neal did not have a gun.

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Three officers were stripped of police powers by the superintendent days later. Supt. Eddie Johnson said he believed proper procedures were not followed.

On Saturday, at a press conference, Johnson reiterated his conclusion based on what he's learned and seen.

"Our policy clearly states we are prohibited from firing into or at moving vehicles if the vehicle is the only use of force," Johnson said.

Nine videos from police vehicles and officer body cameras showed the shooting, the chase and the aftermath of the shooting, but no video was recorded of the fatal shot. The body camera of that officer did not capture video of that moment.

On Sunday afternoon, 150 marchers gathered in Millennium Park and then took to the streets. Some of them chanted "another body camera cover-up" at times, a reference to the missing footage. They also sang "we shall overcome."

BLM Chi Youth organized the Sunday protest. The group is associated with Black Lives Matter and is made up of teenagers. The organizers vowed that no protesters would be arrested or scuffle with police.

"Black people should not have a dead-or-alive bounty tattooed on their backs," Eva Lewis, 17, a protest organizer, told the Chicago Tribune.

"At the end of the day, it's our generation that has to deal with the repercussions of what's happening around us," said another 17-year-old organizer, Sophia Byrd.

Both were friends of O'Neal.

On Friday, protesters stopped the police superintendent from speaking at an afternoon press conference, and they shut down Metra commuter train tracks in the South Shore community. On Saturday night, protesters marched on police headquarters.

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