Protest groups were set to return to the streets of Chicago on Wednesday, one day after the city released a squad-car video showing a white police officer fatally shoot a black teenager.
Prosecutors on Tuesday charged Officer Jason Van Dyke with first-degree murder for the 2014 death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, who was shot 16 times.
Several hundred demonstrators marched in and near downtown and outside a Chicago police building on Tuesday night, chanting and at times blocking intersections, but police reported few problems. Other protests are planned, including one Wednesday afternoon at City Hall and another in a downtown shopping area on Friday.
On the night of Oct. 20, 2014, police responded to a call of a teen with a knife. Witnesses said he was breaking into cars and stealing radios.
Police have said McDonald refused their orders to drop the knife and walked away from them. The police union also said that at one point McDonald lunged at officers with the knife.
The video released Tuesday shows McDonald jogging down an empty lane on a four-lane street and then veering away from Van Dyke and another officer who emerge from a police SUV drawing their guns. Within seconds, Van Dyke begins firing. McDonald spins around and falls to the pavement as Van Dyke keeps shooting.
Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez said Van Dyke emptied his weapon before his partner stepped forward and kicked the knife away from McDonald.
Alvarez said police later recovered a knife with a 3-inch blade that was folded into the handle.
An autopsy report showed McDonald had the hallucinogenic drug PCP in his system.
A freelance journalist filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the video after learning of the shooting, but the Chicago Police Department refused to release it, saying it could hurt investigations.
Activists and attorneys argued the public had a right to see the video, and last week a Cook County judge agreed. He gave the city until Wednesday to make it public.