Chicago teenager 'confesses to murder' in Snapchat video from back of police car

Clip appears to show alleged killer saying 'I killed Chris and now I'm going to kill myself'

Anthony Mendoza is accused of shooting his friend in the chest with a shotgun (Getty Images)

A teenager charged with the murder of his friend sent a Snapchat video to his followers in which he confessed to the crime and said he planned to kill himself, a court heard.

Anthony Mendoza, 17, was charged with first-degree murder in Chicago last Friday after he allegedly shot his friend Christian Bandemer, 16, in the chest with a shotgun.

According to prosecutors, the brief clip posted online by Mendoza following his arrest shows him in the back of a police car apparently saying: “I killed Chris and now I’m going to kill myself”

Mr Bandemer was pronounced dead at the scene from blood loss and internal trauma.

Police initially thought the shooting may have been accidental as the pair were playing around with the loaded weapon, according The Chicago Tribune.

However, assistant state's attorney Anna Sedelmaier told the court Mendoza would have known there was a strong possibility of killing someone with the gun and later warned Mr Bandemer's cousin “not to snitch” about the killing.

Sedelmaier told how the victim’s 20-year-old cousin rushed to apply pressure to the gunshot wound while Mendoza tried to conceal the weapon in the garden of an abandoned house nearby.

Judge Peggy Chiampas described the incident as “an absolute tragedy” and ordered Mendoza be held in lieu of a $250,000 bail.

Meanwhile, Mendoza’s defence claimed the teen had “no animosity” towards his friend and that the shooting happened by accident.

As part of the ruling, the judge ruled no firearms would be allowed in Mendoza’s household anymore.

It comes after a Snapchat video emerged last month appearing to show a 15-year-old girl being gang-raped in a school toilet in Florida, which was later investigated by police.