Aamer Madhani

USA TODAY

Note to readers: Video contains graphic content.

CHICAGO — Newly-released video footage shows a plainclothes Chicago police officer fatally shooting an unarmed 17-year-old as the young man sprinted away from cops after stealing a car.

The release of the videos, which were made public on Thursday after Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration fought for months to keep them under wraps, comes as the city has been on edge over a series of controversial police-involved shootings.

Video footage that was captured from a nearby high school shows Cedrick Chatman running away at full speed from officers Kevin Fry and Lou Toth, who were responding to a call of carjacking in progress.

U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman on Thursday described Toth as being on the heels of Chatman, when Fry opened fire. Fry, Toth and the city of Chicago are being sued by the slain teen's mother over the 2013 incident.

Fry said in a deposition that he thought Chatman was holding a weapon and decided to fire because the teen turned his body slightly toward Toth as he was running away from the officers. Fry, who fired four shots, said he feared for his and his partner's lives as well as innocent bystanders in the area.

After the shots are fired, two pedestrians can be seen getting out of Chatman’s way as he’s running toward them. A split second later the pedestrians then run back in the direction they came from as Chatman was struck by two bullets and falls to the ground.

Toth can also be seen handcuffing Chatman, and Fry chases after the silver Dodge that Chatman stole as it rolls down the street without a driver. Fry puts the car in park, and firefighters and paramedics soon arrive on the scene.

The move by Judge Gettleman to release the video comes the day after attorneys for the city, who had vigorously fought for months to keep the footage private, dropped their objection to the video's release.

The Chicago Police Department and Emanuel have faced an avalanche of criticism over the use of force by the city’s police.

The city has been embroiled in weeks of protests following the court-ordered release of police video in November that showed the 2014 shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. Officer Jason Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder on the same day of the video's release, 400 days after the incident.

The situation in Chicago was further inflamed after a Chicago police officer fatally shot 19-year-old Quintonio LeGrier and his 55-year-old neighbor Bettie Jones. Police said that the officer opened fire after LeGrier, who was wielding a baseball bat, had become combative and accidentally also fatally shot Jones.

LeGrier was wounded six times, including in the back and his buttocks, and Jones suffered a fatal wound to the chest, according to medical examiner reports released on Thursday.

After the McDonald video's release, Emanuel said the city would strive for greater transparency as it tried to balance the public’s interest in disclosure with the importance of protecting the integrity of investigations.

The mayor's words not withstanding, the city continued to fight to keep the Chatman video private, even filing a motion only three weeks ago that argued release of the video could taint a potential jury in the wrongful death suit.

Judge Gettleman criticized the city for belatedly finding the "Age of Enlightenment" in its view on the videos.

"I'm very disturbed about the way this has happened," Gettleman said.

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Jonathan Clark Green, an assistant corporation counsel for the city, said in court Thursday that city was trying to adapt to a "new world" with new technologies in which the city's longstanding policy of keeping evidence under wraps until trial is conflicting with a growing public demand for disclosure.

The mayor last month appointed a Task Force on Police Accountability to review department procedures and policies, including how to go about releasing sensitive video of ongoing investigations.

"We're in the middle of transition to a different policy as it relates to transparency and letting that material out and the decision is exactly an example of that," Emanuel told reporters Thursday.

Video footage from three cameras, including a police camera, captured all or parts of the incident.

Lorenzo Davis, an investigator for the city agency tasked with investigating police shootings, has said he was initially assigned to investigate the incident and found the shooting to be unjustified. But Davis, a former police officer, was overruled by a supervisor and the agency cleared Fry of wrongdoing.

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Davis, who was fired by the city agency known as the Independent Police Review Authority, has filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the city alleging he was pressured by supervisors to change his findings and was wrongfully terminated after refusing to reverse findings in investigations in which he found officers committed misconduct.

Gettleman, the federal judge, said on Thursday there was no pending criminal investigation of the incident.

In addition to the video footage, police also released 911 dispatch calls from before and after the shooting. Among the calls were from a frantic man, who said he had been carjacked, robbed of $400 and beat up by a group of teenagers.

Prosecutors later charged two men who took part in the robbery, Akeem Clarke and Martel Odoum, with robbery, vehicular carjacking and murder because their criminal action led to police fatally shooting Chatman. Prosecutors later dropped the murder charge and both men are serving 10-year prison terms for robbery and unlawful vehicular invasion.

Brian Coffman, co-counsel for the slain teen's mother, Linda Chatman, said that the teen was "running away as fast as he" could from police when he was shot.

The attorney said he found the Emanuel administration's about-face on the video "suspect."

“This does not change anything in the city of Chicago," Coffman said. "They are still not being transparent. We are still not hearing details of how they’re going to change handling these cases.”

Follow USA TODAY Chicago correspondent Aamer Madhani on Twitter: @AamerISmad