Bodycam footage of officer fatally shooting 13-year-old released

Body camera footage of the police shooting of 13-year-old Adam Toledo was released Thursday by Chicago’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability.

In the video, an officer is seen chasing Toledo down an alleyway while yelling “stop right f—— now” before Toledo halts at a large gap in some wooden fencing.

The officer, whose name has not been released, is then heard yelling “show me your f—— hands,” and Toledo is seen slowly turning to the officer with both of his hands raised in a clear surrender pose.

Though a gun is not clearly visible in Toledo’s hand, the officer yells “drop it” twice before shooting Toledo once in the chest. The young teen then falls to the ground, and a weapon is not visible on the ground as other officers arrive and begin CPR.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) called for calm in the city at a press conference following the video’s release to the public, adding that the city had “failed Adam.”

“They are incredibly difficult to watch, particularly at the end,” said Lightfoot of the scenes shown in the video. “No one should have a video broadcast widely of their child’s last moments, much less be placed in the terrible situation of losing their child in the first place.

“Simply put, we failed Adam, and we cannot afford to fail one more young person in our city,” she continued.

Lightfoot went on to say that Chicagoans “don’t have enough information to be the judge and jury” of the situation and called for peace amid calls for protest in the city.

“We all must proceed with deep empathy and calm, and importantly, peace,” she continued.

Officials have contended that Toledo did have a gun in his hand, and argued in court as recently as this past weekend in the trial of Ruben Roman, a 21-year-old also accused of fleeing from police with Toledo, that Toledo died in an “armed confrontation” with police.

Protesters in the city Wednesday night reportedly disputed that characterization, and the release of the video Thursday is likely to only intensify accusations that officials lied about the circumstances that led to Toledo’s death, in particular because he is seen appearing to surrender in the video.

The video’s release comes amid the ongoing murder trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis officer who was charged over the death of George Floyd, as well as protests over the shooting of Daunte Wright, a Black 20-year-old, at a traffic stop on Sunday for which one officer resigned and was charged with second-degree manslaughter.