Image from: ABC Chicago 7 Screenshot
On Thursday, after weeks of protests and calls for answers and action, the Chicago Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) released footage of the shooting death of 13-year-old Adam Toledo. Toledo was shot and killed by a Chicago Police officer on March 29, 2021, in the predominantly Latino community of Little Village. The video is graphic, and disturbing, and Adam Toledo is clearly a child. He runs from the police officer, who chases him down an alley with a chain-linked fence along the right side. Toledo stops at the fence, slightly turned away from the officer. The officer screams at him to turn around and Toledo turns around, his hands bare and both up in the air at his shoulders and he is shot. Once in the chest.
The body camera video that shows the shooting begins with about 1 minute and 45 seconds of the officer driving to the scene in the Little Village neighborhood before exiting his vehicle and running down an alley. Police, stop! Stop right f ing now, the officer can be heard yelling as Adam appears to pause near a fence bordering a parking lot at the end of the alley. Toledo is then seen turning toward the officer with his hands up.
The officer can be heard yelling, Hey show me your f ing hands, drop it, drop it, firing one shot as Adam turns and puts his hands up, just under 20 seconds after the officer exited his vehicle.
Crime by Fionnuala O’Leary
WARNING: Distressing images Horrific body cam footage documenting the final moments of American teenager Adam Toledo shows him being gunned down with his hands in the air by a police officer. Disturbing video shows the Chicago officer fatally shooting the 13-year-old in an alley at around 2.30am on March 29 as he ran from police while allegedly carrying a handgun, alongside Ruben Roman, 21, the Body cam footage, CCTV video, Office of Emergency Management and Communications transmissions, ShotSpotter recordings, and Case Incident Tactical Response were all released. The arrest reports published by Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) indicated that the teen posed an imminent threat of battery with a weapon as pressure mounted for the footage to be shown.
AOC Says Prosecutor Lied About Police Killing a Child in Adam Toledo Case
On 4/16/21 at 12:16 AM EDT
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Thursday blasted an Illinois prosecutor who lied about the circumstances surrounding the fatal police shooting of 13-year-old Adam Toledo on March 29.
Ocasio-Cortez was responding to a report on the shooting that noted Cook County, Illinois officials determined a prosecutor had made an error when he previously claimed that Toledo was holding a gun before being killed. Body camera footage of the shooting released Thursday does not appear to show the boy holding a weapon, while the Cook County State s Attorney s Office said that the prosecutor was mistaken and had failed to fully inform himself.
Fri, Apr 16th 2021 12:12pm
Tim Cushing
Another shooting of an unarmed person by police officers will likely see parts of Chicago burn over the next few days. But to get to where we are in the aftermath of this very disturbing shooting, we have to start at the beginning.
Adam Toledo, a 13-year-old Latino seventh grader, was shot dead in an alley by a Chicago police officer on March 29 following a foot chase. His mother had reported Adam missing. When officers came knocking on her door two days later, it was to identify his body. It wasn’t until after that that she was informed he was killed by police.