Cops and protesters scuffle after man fatally shot by Chicago police officer

Aamer Madhani | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Video shows Chicago police beating protesters with batons After a man was fatally shot by a Chicago police officer, angry protesters took to the streets. The protests continued through the night, getting very violent at times.

CHICAGO — Police scuffled with demonstrators Saturday evening in the nation's third-largest city, hours after a Chicago police officer fatally shot a man on the city's South Side.

Officers were struck by rocks and bottles as dozens of demonstrators gathered near the crime scene Saturday, according to police. Four demonstrators were arrested late Saturday as police cleared the crime scene, said Anthony Guglielmi, the police department's chief spokesman. Fred Waller, chief of the department's patrol division, said three or four officers were injured.

It was not immediately clear what charges the arrested demonstrators face.

Video posted on social media appeared to show multiple officers drag one man at the scene. Protesters chanted "murderers" and "no justice, no peace" at officers.

Here's the rest of the escalation, including multiple Chicago Police officers on top of one man, hitting him, and then dragging another man. This is also the start of where I get shoved to the ground. That video is coming next. pic.twitter.com/AJ7t85nEHP — Nader Issa (@NaderDIssa) July 15, 2018

Police said in a statement that the fatal shooting happened when officers on foot in the South Shore neighborhood tried to question a man “exhibiting characteristics of an armed person.” Waller added that officers, who were posted in the area, spotted a bulge in the man's pants that they suspected was a weapon.

No police officers were injured in the confrontation with the suspected gunman. A weapon was recovered at the scene.

"When they approached him, he tried to push their hands away, started flailing and swinging away, trying to make his escape, and as he tried to make his escape he reached for his weapon," said Waller, who said police recovered a semiautomatic firearm at the scene.

Asked by a reporter at a Saturday evening news conference whether the suspect had a license to carry a concealed weapon, Waller responded, "As we know now, he did not."

The officer who fatally shot the suspect will be placed on desk duty for the next 30 days, standard procedure for the more than 12,000-officer department, while the city's Civilian Office of Police Accountability investigates the shooting.

A scuffle later broke out at the scene of the shooting between chanting protesters and police officers holding batons. Video showed several police officers and protesters shoving each other.

After nightfall, protesters continued to mill around the neighborhood with police occasionally chasing them away. Protesters shouted insults at the police and threw some bottles at them. Video showed one protester thrown to the ground surrounded by police holding batons.

Waller said that protesters also caused damage to squad cars.

After police cleared the area near the fatal shooting, some demonstrators moved their protest to the nearby 3rd District police station.

Chicago has a troubled history of police shootings and misconduct.

The city saw weeks of peaceful protest in 2015 after the release of a video showing white police officer Jason Van Dyke shooting black 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times in 2014. Van Dyke was charged with murder. McDonald’s death led to the ouster of the police chief and a series of reforms designed to prevent future police abuses and to hold officers accountable for excesses.

Van Dyke is awaiting trial.

A 2017 Justice Department review found Chicago officers used force nearly 10 times more in incidents involving black suspects than against white suspects. African-Americans were the subject of 80% of all police firearm uses and 81% of all Taser contact-stun uses between January 2011 and April 2016. Of incidents where use of force was used against a minor, 83% involved black children and 14% involved Latino children during the same time-period, the report notes.

Chicago has also spent about $709 million on settlements for police misconduct cases, according to a recent report from the Action Center on Race & the Economy.

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Contributing: Associated Press