Yahoo News Obama 'Deeply Disturbed' By Teen's Shooting
US President Barack Obama has said he is "deeply disturbed" by a video showing a white Chicago police officer fatally shooting a black teenager 16 times.
Mr Obama spoke as a second night of largely peaceful demonstrations against police brutality in his Illinois hometown ended in four arrests.
Writing on his new Facebook page, the US President said: "Like many Americans, I was deeply disturbed by the footage of the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald."
Laquan McDonald was shot on 20 October 2014 on a street in the city.
Police say he refused to drop a knife which was recovered from the scene.
Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke has been charged with first-degree murder.
Prosecutors say the officer emptied his 9mm pistol of all 16 rounds and that he was on the scene for just 30 seconds before he started shooting.
It is alleged he opened fire just six seconds after getting out of his vehicle and kept firing even after Mr McDonald dropped to the ground.
Chicago's Democratic Mayor Rahm Emanuel is facing calls to be held accountable after his administration resisted calls to release the video.
Activists were outraged by how much the footage contrasted with the initial police account of the shooting.
Chicago authorities had described Mr McDonald, who they said had the hallucinogenic drug PCP in his system, lunging at police with a knife before shots were fired.
However, two independent journalists and a University of Chicago law professor refused to accept the official narrative and demanded to see the video.
The clip, once it was released this week after 13 months, shows that rather than lunging at officers, Mr McDonald appears actually to be walking away from them before Van Dyke opens fire.
The video lacked discernible audio so any commands shouted by police officers cannot be heard.
Police said the sound was missing due to an unspecified technical problem.
Van Dyke - who has been out on paid leave since the shooting - had at least 20 previous complaints against him, but he was never disciplined.
Eight people have been arrested during two nights demonstrations over the Laquan McDonald shooting.
Some of the protesters have been chanting "16 shots".
Activists say a culture of racial bias runs deep in the city's police department despite reform efforts.
Activists have compared his killing with that of black teenager Michael Brown, who was shot dead last year by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.
