Family views video of shooting
Chicago mayor stresses need for respect, privacy
CHICAGO – The family of Adam Toledo on Tuesday night viewed the police body camera video showing last month’s fatal shooting of the 13-yearold by an officer who chased him into an alley, the family’s attorneys said in a statement.
The Toledo family has requested the footage not be immediately released to the public, according to a statement by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, which investigates cases of potential police misconduct. It’s unclear when the footage will be made public.
“The experience was extremely difficult and heartbreaking for everyone present and especially for Adam’s family,” said a statement released Tuesday night by family attorneys Adeena Weiss-Ortiz and Joel Hirschhorn.
The attorneys thanked the review board for allowing the family to view the footage before its public release and asked that everyone respect the family’s privacy.
“We also want to thank leaders and members of the Latino community for remaining peaceful in their protests and calls for justice,” the family statement said. “Adam’s memory can best be honored by refraining from violence and working constructively for reform.”
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Wednesday there is a need for transparency and officials are “going to work with the family to move this process along.” However, she added: “I think we have to be respectful of them and move at their speed. That’s what we’re endeavoring to do in balancing a range of different issues.”
When asked by a reporter, she said the delay of the release has nothing to do with ongoing trial of Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis.
“This is about being respectful and balancing the need for transparency with this grieving family that’s having an extraordinarily difficult time,” she said Wednesday during an unrelated news conference.
Officials are in the “very early stages” of investigating the shooting, and interviews of witnesses and officers are ongoing, according to the COPA statement.
Tensions remain high in Chicago, where demonstrations have already been planned to demand police accountability in the boy’s death. The release of the footage will only add to mounting frustration and anxiety across the country as protests continue after the police shooting of 20year-old Daunte Wright during a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center, just miles from where former Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin is on trial for the death of George Floyd.
Several dozen people marched through the downtown Tuesday evening, calling for justice for Adam and Wright, who was fatally shot on Sunday.
Adam was killed in the early morning hours of March 29. Police responded to the Little Village neighborhood after the department’s ShotSpotter technology detected eight gunshots. When police arrived, Adam and a 21-year-old man fled, authorities have said.
The officer shot Adam once in the chest after an “armed confrontation,” police said. Prosecutors have said the boy was holding a gun when the officer shot him. He died at the scene.
Officials have not publicly identified the officer, who has been placed on administrative leave for 30 days.
Prosecutors say the 21-year-old at the scene was Ruben Roman. As he was arrested, another officer chased Adam. Prosecutors have said the gun Adam was allegedly holding matched the cartridge casings found in the area where Roman was firing.
On Saturday, Roman was held on a $150,000 bond and faces felony charges of unlawful use and reckless discharge of a firearm, as well as child endangerment and violating probation.