CHICAGO – Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel got a rude awakening at a recent Urban Prep Academies ceremony where students shut him down by chanting “16 shots” – a reference to the number fired into a black teen during a recent police shooting.

Emanuel visited the acclaimed charter high school Wednesday to unveil his “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative designed to create opportunities for minorities. After the mayor’s remarks, as principal Dion Steele prepared to lead students in the school creed, chants of “16 shots!” rung out from the crowd, the Chicago Tribune reports.

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The chants refer to the shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald by Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke in October, 2014 and the ensuing controversy over cruiser dash camera footage that was withheld from the public for over a year. The footage seemed to conflict with the initial police account, and critics claim Emanuel purposefully withheld it until after he was re-elected. The mayor is currently fending off calls for his resignation over the case, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

The site reports the student chant lasted for about 10 seconds, and was not acknowledged by Emanuel or Steele. WGN broadcasted a brief clip of the incident.

The mayor has repeatedly touted Urban Prep as a role model educational institution because of its incredible academic success with black youth, and he named the school’s leader, Tim King, to the 22-member My Brothers Keeper Cabinet.

“Every year, 100 percent graduation, 100 percent college acceptance. Every time people say, ‘Not those men. Not from that neighborhood. Not from that community.’ And every time, Urban Prep proves them wrong,” Emanuel said.

The cabinet, which includes other educators, religious and civic leaders, is tasked with creating a “cradle-to-career” plan to “improve upon and invest in programs that eliminate roadblocks to success and improve outcomes for minority youth,” the Sun-Times reports.

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The mayor identifies those road blocks as “inter-generational poverty; incarceration, health risks and lower rates of academic achievement.”

The Tribune reports the My Brothers Keeper initiative “is a program launched by President Barack Obama” that the mayor’s office said will seek to help “every child and young man of color in Chicago.”

The only response to the students’ “16 shots” chants seemed to come in the form of a statement from Emanuel spokeswoman Lauren Huffman.

“The mayor recognizes that Chicagoans are understandably frustrated,” the statement read, according to the Tribune. “He has called for systemic reform to bring safety to every community and rebuild trust where it has been lost.”

Emanuel said last week that a “systemic breakdown” caused McDonald’s “totally avoidable” death, acknowledged a “code of silence” from the police department, and apologized to at a city council meeting. The mayor also denied he withheld video of the incident for political reasons, and said police policy not to release them “added to the suspicion and distrust” in the city, the Sun-Times reports.

The Chicago Police Department is now the subject of a civil rights investigation by the U.S. Justice Department as a result of the shooting, while Van Dyke faces first-degree murder charges.