Footage released of boy, 13, killed by Chicago police
CHICAGO — Body camera footage of a Chicago police officer fatally shooting a 13yearold boy last month shows the officer yelling “Drop it!” at the teen right before he opens fire.
A still frame taken from the jumpy nighttime footage appears to show that Adam Toledo wasn’t holding anything and had his hands up, or partially up, when the officer shot him in the chest. Police say the teen had a handgun on him that morning, and the bodycam footage shows the officer shining a light on a handgun on the ground near Toledo after he shot him.
The footage shows that it took 19 seconds from which the officer exited his squad car to when he shot the teen. After getting out of the vehicle, the officer chases Toledo on foot down an alley for several seconds and yells, “Police! Stop! Stop right f—ing now!”
As the teen slows down, the officer yells, “Hands! Hands! Show me your f—ing hands!”
Toledo then turns toward the camera, the officer yells “Drop it!” and midway between repeating that command, he opens fire and the teen falls down. While approaching wounded Toledo, the officer radios in for an ambulance. He can be heard imploring the boy to “stay awake,” and as other officers arrive, the officer who apparently fired the shot says he can’t feel a heartbeat and begins administering CPR. Other officers can be heard imploring Toledo to stay awake.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot held a
news conference during which she urged the public to remain peaceful and reserve judgment until the independent board can complete its investigation.
Choking up at times, Lightfoot decried the city’s long history of police violence and misconduct, especially in Black and brown communities, and said too many young people are left vulnerable to “systemic failures that we simply must fix.”
In Chicago, police said officers responded to an area of the predominantly Latino and Black neighborhood Little Village on the city’s West Side before dawn on the morning of the shooting after a police technology detected gunshots there. The teen, who was Latino, and a 21yearold man fled on foot when confronted by police, and an officer shot the
teen once in the chest following a foot chase during what the department described as an armed confrontation.
Police said a handgun the boy had been carrying was recovered at the scene. The 21yearold man was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest.