Listen Live
WOLB Featured Video
CLOSE

The Chicago Police Department is embroiled in what appears to be another cover-up in connection with the shooting of yet another African-American man.

Chicago cops shot and killed Paul O’Neal after chasing the suspected car thief as he attempted to flee. Police body camera footage captured during the incident shows O’Neal driving a stolen vehicle erratically past officers, who opened fire on the speeding car in the middle of a residential neighborhood.

Body camera footage also captured a foot chase after O’Neal crashed the stolen vehicle he was driving into another police car. What police body camera footage did not capture was one of the officers in pursuit of O’Neal, before he eventually shot the fleeing suspect in the back.

The Chicago Police Department released the body and dash cam videos eight days after the shooting incident as part of a new policy to make such videos public in the first 60 days after a shooting.

On Monday’s edition of NewsOne Now, guest host Avis Jones-DeWeever and her panel of guests discussed the police shooting and the admission that the body camera of the officer who shot the 18-year-old was not turned on.

Charlene Carruthers, National Director of BYP 100, explained body cameras are not the solution to police misconduct: “Officers still have the autonomy on whether or not to turn them on.”

Body cams are only a piece of technology that does not account for the behavior of the individual wearing them. “We’ve seen yet again a Chicago police officer take the life of a young Black person while carrying a body camera,” Carruthers said.

Later during the NewsOne Now discussion of the police shooting of O’Neal, Carruthers said she does not believe the body camera of the officer who fired the fatal shots was not working by happenstance.

She believes the issues revolving around the convenient malfunctioning or missing footage from body cameras indicates “a glaring and unfortunately murderous and violent consequence of us looking to have some kind of confidence, some type of safety in body cameras, as opposed to a divestment from policing and investment in things that actually keep our communities safe.”

Watch guest host Avis Jones-DeWeever, Charlene Carruthers, and the NewsOne Now panel discuss the Paul O’Neal police shooting in the video clip above.

PHOTO CREDIT: Getty

Watch NewsOne Now with Roland Martin, in its new time slot on TV One.

SEE ALSO: 

WATCH: ‘Cold-Blooded Murder:’ Chicago Police Release Video Of Fatal Shooting Of Unarmed Black Teen

Chicago Police Body Camera Fail: ‘Officers Still Have The Autonomy’  was originally published on newsone.com