Bodycam video released by COPA after officers fatally shoot suspect in West Garfield Park

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The Civilian Office of Police Accountability released police body camera footage Tuesday from a deadly shooting on Chicago's West Side in July.

In the videos released by the Chicago oversight group known as COPA, you hear and see police opening fire on 34-year-old Klevontaye White. Police say he was wanted on a warrant and when officers, along with U.S. Marshals, tried to arrest him, White pulled out a weapon and pointed it at police.

RELATED | Man killed in Chicago police shooting in West Garfield Park ID'd: CPD

The ABC7 I-Team went over the series of extremely violent videos. It was early Friday morning on July 9, 2021, in the West Garfield Park neighborhood when "shots fired at the police" was heard crackling over radios. It was said by officers and repeated by dispatchers over and over because there were so many shots fired as authorities were trying to execute an arrest warrant.

The special violent fugitive task force from Chicago police, the sheriff's department and the US Marshal Service was already on high alert for the suspect in the SUV, White, then wanted on more than a dozen counts of aggravated sexual assault with a firearm and cutting off his electronic monitor bracelet.

Authorities say he was armed with a pistol when they approached the car. When one shot was fired - seemingly by the suspect - there came a series of police shots.

Some officers had to reload as the suspect in the backseat behind darkened windows continued to be a threat. Officers had shields for the close-proximity gunfight. The chaotic scene, recorded on numerous body cameras, showed how dangerous this kind of situation can be for police.

After the guns fell silent, White was critically wounded with multiple gunshots and later died from a primary shot to the head, according to paperwork also released Tuesday by COPA.

The fatal outcome was emphatically explained last month by police superintendent David Brown.

"This person was on electronic monitoring. After 15 counts of criminal sexual assault with a firearm. And he pointed a gun at our officers, with ill intent."

Three Chicago police officers and a deputy US Marshal fired the shots that day while executing arrest warrants for White.

COPA's investigation of the July 9 incident in West Garfield Park is a now familiar process that is still in its early stages. Despite the release of recordings and paperwork, officials at the Civilian Office of Police Accountability will determine whether the deadly force used that day was justified.