Protesters are outraged over the early release of Jason Van Dyke who served less than half of his sentence for killing Black teenager, Laquan McDonald, who was shot 16 times while walking away from the police. (EEW Online)

CHICAGO (AP) — Former Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke left prison on Thursday after serving less than half of his nearly seven-year sentence for killing Black teenager Laquan McDonald, angering community leaders who feel the white officer’s punishment didn’t fit his crime.

The 43-year-old was released at 12:15 a.m. from the Taylorville Correctional Center in central Illinois, a corrections official said. The conditions of his parole and what Van Dyke plans to do next weren’t immediately known.

Van Dyke has been moved to a halfway house for State prisoners who are in the process of being fully released (AP)

Van Dyke was convicted of second-degree murder in the 2014 shooting of a Black teenager that was captured on shocking dashcam video that showed the teen crumpling to the ground in a hail of 16 bullets as he walked away from police.

The video, some of the most graphic police footage to emerge in years, stoked outrage nationwide and put the nation’s third-largest city at the center of the debate about police misconduct and use of force. The shooting also led to a federal inquiry and calls to reform the Chicago Police Department.

Van Dyke was the first Chicago officer to be charged with murder for an on-duty shooting in about 50 years.

The second-degree verdict reflected the jury’s finding that Van Dyke believed his life was in danger but that the belief was unreasonable. The jury also had the option of first degree-murder, which required finding that the shooting was unnecessary and unreasonable. A first-degree conviction, with enhancements for the use of a gun, would have carried a mandatory minimum of 45 years.

The Rev. Marvin Hunter, Laquan McDonald's great-uncle, speaks with reporters at the Leighton Criminal Court Building in Chicago on Friday, Jan. 18, 2019. (Teresa Crawford/AP)

His conviction seemed to signal a new era of police accountability and of the department’s treatment of the city’s Black residents. But they said Van Dyke’s early release for good behavior after he served about three years and four months of his sentence of six years and nine months re-victimized McDonald and the Black community.

“This is the ultimate illustration that Black lives don’t matter as much as other lives,” said the Rev. Marshall Hatch, a prominent minister on the city’s West Side. “To get that short amount of time for a murder sends a bad message to the community.”

A demonstrator scuffles with a police officer after protests broke out in Chicago, Nov. 24, 2015. Officials said about a half-dozen protesters were arrested. (Credit: Jim Young/Reuters)

McDonald’s great uncle, the Rev. Marvin Hunter, believes the sentence was woefully inadequate, but he said it doesn’t take away from the significance of the case.

“Had Jason Van Dyke gotten one day in jail it would have been a victory because he was the first,” said Hunter. “Since then, police across the country are getting convicted of murdering Black people.”

Joseph McMahon, the special prosecutor who led a team of attorneys that secured Van Dyke’s conviction and who asked the judge to impose an 18-20 year sentence, said he hopes people don’t think Van Dyke escaped punishment.

“I know this is difficult to accept, especially for minority communities marginalized by police and the criminal justice system for decades, but this (the conviction and sentence) is a sign of progress,” he said.

To give the teen and the community the justice it hoped it had with Van Dyke’s conviction, the NAACP this week asked U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to bring federal civil rights charges against Van Dyke. McDonald’s grandmother, Tracie Hunter, has asked for the same thing.

On Thursday, the Rev. Jesse Jackson hand-delivered a letter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago also calling for federal charges, while protesters gathered outside the federal courthouse. Nine people were arrested there for violating the chief judge’s order for demonstrations and appeared in court Thursday night, a representative of the U.S. Marshals told WLS-TV.