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Chicago Police Reports Do Not Match Video Footage


A frame grab from dash-cam video provided by the Chicago Police Department shows Laquan McDonald (R) walks down the street moments before being shot by officer Jason Van Dyke on Oct. 20, 2015.
A frame grab from dash-cam video provided by the Chicago Police Department shows Laquan McDonald (R) walks down the street moments before being shot by officer Jason Van Dyke on Oct. 20, 2015.

The Chicago police department released hundreds of pages of police reports late Friday about the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald, an African-American teenager shot 16 times last year by white police officer Jason Van Dyke.

The reports by various police officers who were at the scene of the shooting in the third-largest city in the U.S. are compelling because their descriptions of what happened do not match police car video footage.

At least five police officers said in their reports 17-year-old McDonald was aggressively moving toward the police officers with a knife when he was shot.

One report said Van Dyke "fired his handgun at McDonald, to stop the attack." However, the video shows the teenager walking away from the officers when he was shot in October 2014.

WATCH: Related video by VOA's Carolyn Presutti in Chicago

Protests in Chicago After Fatal Police Shooting Video Released
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One report said the teenager continued to move on the ground after he was fatally shot by Van Dyke. He was hit with several bullets when he was on the ground.

A judge set a $1.5 million bond last month for Van Dyke on the first-degree murder charge in the death of McDonald. The officer was arrested, but he is now out on bail.

He had continued to work for the police department after the shooting, but was fired last month.

Van Dyke was charged with murder on the same day Chicago released video of the shooting.

City fought release of video

City officials had fought in court for months to keep the video from public release, before deciding to stop fighting a judge's order to release the footage.

Following the release of the video, hundreds of protesters blocked store entrances and clogged traffic in Chicago's downtown shopping district on "Black Friday," the day after Thanksgiving, traditionally one of the busiest shopping days of the year in the United States.

The shooting of McDonald is the latest in a wave of high-profile police-involved killings that have raised allegations of abuses against minorities around the country.

WATCH: Video from Chicago police dashboard camera

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