Source: Chicago PD / Chicago Police Department
Days after Daunte Wright’s life was taken by police officers in Minnesota, Chicago PD released a bodycam video of another kid being gunned down by a police officer and yes, it was unnecessary.
Buzzfeed is reporting that after being chased down by 34-year-old officer Eric Stillman in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood, 13-year-old Adam Toledo was shot and killed after complying with the cops demands and putting his hands in the air. Toledo was unarmed at the time of the shooting. Though prosecutors initially insisted that Toledo was brandishing a gun when he turned around and provoked the shooting, the bodycam footage paints an entirely different account.
What the videos showed amounted to an “assassination,” Adeena Weiss-Ortiz, the Toledo family’s attorney, said at a press conference Thursday evening.
“If you’re shooting an unarmed child with his hands in the air, it is an assassination,” she told reporters.
She’s right.
The shooting took place on March 29 but the family actually requested that the release of the footage be delayed for personal reasons. After responding to calls of shots being fired in the area, police chased Toldeo and 21-year-old Ruben Roman, whom they say was the man who fired the initial shots. Police apprehended Roman, but Toledo took off running and a foot chase ensued.
After the officer on the heels of Toledo ordered him to “Stop f*cking now!” and “Show me your fucking hands. Drop it!,” the 13-year-old turned around with his hands up and was shot dead on the spot. The officer then rushed to the dying child and immediately called for an ambulance and medical attention, but it was too late. The single shot to the chest was enough to bring his young life to an end.
Now authorities say that Toledo tossed something while on the run, which is their way of justifying the killing.
His family’s attorney stressed that, although video showed the 13-year-old appearing to toss something behind the fence, he was unarmed and with his hands in the air at the time he was shot.
“Adam, during his last seconds of life did not have a gun in his hand,” Weiss-Ortiz said. “His hands were empty when he was shot in the chest at the hands of the officer. He did not have a gun in his hand, contrary to the reports made earlier today.”
In an effort to cover-up his life ending actions, Stillman filled out multiple boxes on his tactical incident report stating that Toledo “did not follow verbal commands, fled, posed an imminent threat, used force likely to cause death or great bodily harm, and that he was armed with a semi-automatic pistol.”
Once again, the tape doesn’t lie.
Stillman has been placed on administrative duties for 30 days as the investigation into the shooting goes on.
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