13-year-old boy fatally shot by police
‘I’m trying to hang in there,’ says mom after shooting death of son
CHICAGO — The person fatally shot by a Chicago police officer early Monday during what police said was an “armed confrontation” has been identified as a 13-year-old boy, officials said.
Adam Toledo died of a gunshot wound to the chest, according to Cook County medical examiner’s office spokeswoman Brittany Hill. Toledo was pronounced dead at the scene, and his death was ruled a homicide.
Another representative for the medical examiner’s office said that according to its records, the boy wasn’t identified until Wednesday. She would not say who identified him.
Toledo is the youngest person to be fatally shot by the Chicago police in years.
In a telephone interview
Thursday afternoon, the boy’s mother, Elizabeth Toledo, said no one has told her about what happened to her son early Monday morning.
“I’m trying to hang in there. It’s hard,” she told the Tribune in a distraught tone. “I have lots of questions.”
The shooting happened about 2:35 a.m. Monday on the West Side, according to police spokesman Tom Ahern and a police media notification.
Ahern said police had responded to the area because of an alert from ShotSpotter, the city’s gunfire detection system.
“Officers observed two subjects in a nearby alley, one subject fled on foot which resulted in an armed confrontation,” Ahern wrote. Both people were male, and one of the two, who was armed, “fled from officers,” according to a police media notification.
They were later identified as Toledo and Ruben Roman Jr., 21.
Police began running after the person who fled, and there was a “confrontation
in an alley.”
The confrontation ended with an officer shooting the armed male in the chest, according to the media notification.
A firearm was found and taken into evidence, according to Ahern, who shared an image on Twitter of a handgun on the ground next to an evidence marker.
Roman was taken into custody and charged with misdemeanor resisting or obstructing a peace officer, said Kellie Bartoli, a police spokeswoman.
Elizabeth Toledo, 44, said she last saw her son Sunday during a gathering to memorialize a relative.
Adam Toledo had four siblings, his mother said. Elizabeth Toledo said she didn’t know he was away from home Sunday night or early Monday.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot said on Twitter it’s “critically important” that video footage of the shooting be shown first to the boy’s family and then the public “as quickly as possible, with appropriate protections, given his age.”