Two years ago, a white Chicago police officer fired 16 bullets at a black teenager in a fatal shooting captured on dashcam video that sparked outrage and reforms in a city that remains far from healed.

On the anniversary of the Oct. 20, 2014, shooting, amid surging gun violence, the city still faces uncertainty while awaiting the conclusion of a federal civil rights investigation of Police Department practices and the criminal trial of the officer at the center of the firestorm.

Still, experts say, there is reason for hope that the legacy of slain teen Laquan McDonald will be one of change.

"I think the release of the video was a defining moment for the city," said Craig Futterman, a clinical law professor who directs the University of Chicago's civil rights and police accountability project. "It didn't just reveal what everyone agrees to be a horrible and unnecessary killing of a 17-year-old boy. What is also revealed is the routine operation of a police code of silence. The lack of police accountability is a decades-old reality that won't just evaporate overnight, and it would be wrong not to recognize the real progress and real changes that have occurred since the release of the video."

Read more at The Chicago Tribune