Local Editor

US media reported that hundreds of African-American protesters took to the streets of Chicago, in the state of Illinois overnight after police released a video that showed a white officer unload his gun into an African-American teen.

The Chicago policeman was charged with murder Tuesday in the October 2014 shooting of Laquan McDonald, 17-year old.

The officer, Jason Van Dyke, was denied bail at a hearing in Chicago's main criminal courthouse hours after a state prosecutor announced first-degree murder charges against him.

However, McDonald's death was one of several fatalities in many American cities involving police and captured on camera in the past 18 months, leading to protests about police use of deadly force and reopening a national debate on race relations.

Last week, a court ordered the release of the video showing the killing of McDonald. Chicago authorities said they would make it public Wednesday.

The video shows him moving away from police at the time he was shot, said a lawyer for McDonald's mother, who watched the footage. The police department said all 16 shots were fired by one officer.

Over the past seven years, the city's police have shot and wounded or killed an average of 50 people a year, 80 percent of them were black.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team