Crime & Justice

‘Jesus Fucking Christ’: Missing Body-Cam Footage Fuels Questions About Cop Shooting Unarmed Black Teen

ALL THE ANGLES?

New video of an incident that left a 13-year-old paralyzed has a glaring omission: the footage from the cop as he fired.

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Chicago Police

New body-camera footage and other videos have provided fresh details on the frenzied final moments of a chase that ended with a Chicago cop shooting an unarmed 13-year-old Black boy in Chicago with his hands up.

The footage, obtained by the family of the teen and shared with The Daily Beast, show a quick chase and new angles of the shooting. But video from the bodycam of the officer who shot the child—Noah Ball, whose identity was first reported by The Daily Beast—doesn’t begin until after the incident took place. An attorney for Ball has denied the teen’s hands were raised, and suggested he mistook a cell phone for a gun.

“He had his hands up!” a bystander can be heard yelling on the new footage, which was first obtained by CNN.

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Ball’s lawyer told The Daily Beast on Thursday that his client thought he had activated the camera. The attorney previously contended that Ball believed himself to be in danger when he mistook the cell phone for a weapon.

In May, The Daily Beast reported that the teen had been shot by police at a gas station, before later obtaining footage that showed the child had his hands in the air.

One of the new clips obtained by The Daily Beast on Thursday is not from a body cam but apparently that of a fixed camera nearby, and likewise shows the teen raising his hands.

Last month, The Beast revealed the officer to be Noah Ball, who has not been charged with any crime in an incident that remains under official review.

“Ball had no cover, he had no concealment—he had to make a split-second decision,” his attorney, Timothy Grace, told The Daily Beast last month.

In the new body-camera footage, a cell phone can be seen lying on the ground next to a pool of blood left by the grievously injured 13-year-old after officers dragged him away.

But video from the moments before the shooting does not show where the cell phone was as the child ran, though at least one officer can be heard shouting about a gun.

After the shooting—which was not included on Ball’s camera footage—an officer who may be Ball can be heard saying breathlessly: “Cell phone, it’s a fucking cell phone, secure the area.”

That officer then addresses a second: “Is your camera on?”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s on,” the officer replies.

The events, which take place in a matter of seconds, then descend into further chaos as officers swarm the area and a cop car crashes into the gas station.

“Jesus fucking christ, dude,” another officer says as the child lays on the ground.

The teen has not been identified beyond the initials “AG” in a lawsuit against the officer and the city that alleges his hands were up and that he was following instructions when he was shot, as the AP reported.

An attorney for the family told The Daily Beast on Thursday that the teen remained unable to move from the waist down.

“The doctors now believe he’s paralyzed,” Andrew M. Stroth said in an interview.

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