Graphic body-camera footage shows 13-year-old boy raising his hands before being fatally shot by a Chicago police officer
A Chicago police-accountability group released bodycam footage Thursday of an officer fatally shooting Adam Toledo.
The graphic video shows the 13-year-old boy with his hands up when an officer shoots him.
Adam appears to comply with the officer and is shot within a second of raising his hands.
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability of Chicago released body-camera footage on Thursday of a police officer fatally shooting 13-year-old Adam Toledo.
The graphic video shows Adam stop and raise his hands before an officer shoots him in the chest.
In the video, an officer gets out of his car and begins chasing Adam down an alley.
"Police, stop. Stop right f---ing now," the officer says.
"Show me your f---ing hands. Drop it, drop it," an officer says before shooting Adam.
In the video, less than one second passes between when Adam raises his hands and when the officer shoots him in the chest.
The video shows the officer radioing for backup and approaching Adam.
"Where are you shot, man? Where are you shot? Stay with me. Stay with me," the officer says.
He calls for an ambulance and medical kit. The officer is later seen performing CPR, but Adam doesn't appear to respond.
Another first responder on the scene later says, "Come on, little man, talk to me."
The video challenges comments from the Chicago Police Department that the pursuit of Adam was an "armed confrontation."
Police said they were responding to reports of gunshots when they chased Adam down an alley. The department said Adam was armed and a firearm was recovered in the pursuit. A tactical response report, also released Thursday, says that a "semi-auto pistol" was recovered from the scene but that the weapon was "displayed, not used."
Warning: This video contains graphic footage.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot called for police reform and an end to the foot-pursuit policy in light of the shooting. Ahead of the video's release, Adam's family and Lightfoot released a joint statement on Thursday.
"Yesterday, the City of Chicago's Corporation Counsel, Celia Meza, met with Adeena Weiss-Ortiz and Joel Hirschhorn, legal representatives for the Toledo family," Lightfoot and the Toledo family said in a joint statement.
"Based on the Civilian Office of Police Accountability's announcement that it will be releasing the videos, both parties agree that all material should be released, including a slowed-down compilation of the events of March 29 that resulted in the tragic death of 13-year-old Adam Toledo," the statement added.
The family and Lightfoot called on people to "express themselves peacefully" after the video's release. The Toledo family reviewed the footage on Tuesday and initially asked COPA not to release the footage to the public, the family's attorney said.
In a Thursday news conference, Lightfoot said she had also reviewed the footage ahead of its release and it was "incredibly difficult" to watch.
The officers involved have been placed on administrative leave for 30 days as COPA investigates the shooting, a Chicago NBC affiliate reported.
"We acknowledge that the release of this video is the first step in the process toward the healing of the family, the community, and our city," the statement from the Toledo family and Lightfoot said. "We understand that the release of this video will be incredibly painful and elicit an emotional response to all who view it, and we ask that people express themselves peacefully."
At a press conference organized by the Toledo family and its attorney, Weiss-Ortiz, after the video's release, Weiss-Ortiz called the police shooting of Adam "an assassination."
Weiss-Ortiz said that the video did not immediately clarify whether Adam was holding a gun and that the footage would need to be "forensically analyzed and enhanced" before that determination could be made.
She said that regardless of what object Adam had, the video showed that he complied with the officer's command and that there was nothing in his hands and his hands were up when he was fatally shot.
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