Video of Adam Toledo fatal shooting by Chicago police is released

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Adam was killed after officers responded to a ShotSpotter gunshot detector alert and saw two people in an alley in the 2300 block of South Sawyer Avenue, authorities say. (Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times, Provided)

Video of Adam Toledo fatal shooting by Chicago police is released

By Jeremy Gorner,
Megan Crepeau,
Gregory Pratt
and Annie Sweeney
chicagotribune.com

Video of Adam Toledo’s fatal shooting by a Chicago police officer was released to the public (warning: link contains graphic content) Thursday afternoon, more than two weeks after the 13-year-old was killed following a foot chase in a Little Village alley, igniting anger in the neighborhood and leaving the city on edge.

They included images from officers’ body-worn cameras, along with third-party video, police radio recordings and police reports.

The video from the body-worn camera of the officer who fires the shot captures the instant Toledo was struck, moments after the officer begins chasing the teen down the alley.

In that body camera video of the shooting officer — identified in police reports provided by COPA as Ogden District tactical unit Officer Eric Stillman — he pulls up in the alley in his police vehicle, gets out and starts running south.

The officer, Stillman, can be heard to shout, “show me your (expletive) hands!” followed by “drop it!” with a flickering flashlight on Toledo as he starts to turn around.

The teen can be seen stopped near an opening in a fence as he turned, and he appeared to start lifting his hands. As a shot is heard, the teen appeared to have his hands apart, above his waist, approaching shoulder level. It was difficult to determine on the grainy video, played at regular speed, whether he was holding a weapon as he was struck by the bullet.

Later in the video, an officer can be seen shining a flashlight onto a pistol behind the fence where Toledo had been standing.

In a view from a camera across a nearby parking lot, aimed at the alley from behind that fence, the teen can be seen running down the alley from a distance. As he stops at the gap where he was eventually shot, his right arm can be seen moving behind the fence, making an underhanded throwing motion toward the area where the gun is later recovered, just before he turns back toward the officer and slumps to the ground.

“Shots fired! Shots fired! Get an ambulance over here now!” the officer said in the moments after the shot was fired, rushing to Toledo.

“Look at me. Look at me. You alright?” the cop says, standing over the teen.

“Where are you shot?” the cop says before turning Toledo over onto his back. Blood can be seen on the motionless Toledo’s sweatshirt and nose as officers are heard calling for an ambulance and a medical kit.

A police radio crackling in the background, Stillman, the shooting officer, can be seen attempting repeated chest compressions on Toledo before another officer on scene took over. A few others also crowded around the teen.

“Come on, big guy,” one officer can be heard to say.

Police have previously said a weapon was recovered at the scene, as have Cook County prosecutors. Police reiterated that Thursday, when they showed the video footage to reporters earlier in the afternoon ahead of COPA’s release.

Brendan Deenihan, CPD’s chief of detectives, showed a compilation of video from a camera at nearby Farragut Career Academy High School, a neighborhood church and the shooting officer’s body camera.

Deenihan said less than a second elapsed from when Deenihan said the officer’s body camera showed a gun in Toledo’s hand to the time the officer fired. Deenihan would not answer any questions about the shooting during the briefing.

A lawyer for Stillman, the officer who fired the shot, Tim Grace, said in his viewing, Toledo had a gun at the time he was confronted.

“At this point the officer was faced with a deadly force situation and all attempts to deescalate had failed,” Grace wrote in an emailed statement, adding that non-lethal force would not have been effective or safe for the officer. “The officer had no place to take cover or concealment, the gun was being (orientated) in his direction and he was left with no other option.”

In one of the police reports, a tactical response report, filled out by officers who use force against suspects, it says Stillman is 34 and has been a Chicago police officer since August 2015. By the time report was reviewed by one of Stillman’s supervisors about 9 1/2 hours after the shooting, it only identified Toledo as a Joe Doe.

According to the Invisible Institute, an organization that advocates for police and government accountability, Stillman has no complaints filed against him and is the recipient of the Superintendent’s Award of Valor, one of the department’s major awards.

Toledo was shot in the chest in the early morning hours of March 29, police have said, after officers responded to gunshots near 24th Street and Sawyer Avenue.

The release came after Mayor Lori Lightfoot held a press conference Thursday on the video, where she called it “excruciating” to watch.

The mayor grew emotional as she talked about the city’s ongoing struggles with gun violence, saying “We can’t have that be what young people experience in our city.”

“Simply put, we failed Adam,” she said.

The mayor and lawyers for Toledo’s family also renewed a call for calm Thursday in the hours before the images were made public.

“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 joint statement 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.”

The city’s top lawyer, Celia Meza, met with Toledo family attorneys Adeena Weiss Ortiz and Joel Hirschhorn on Tuesday, according to the statement, and they agreed “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.”

A 21-year-old man, Ruben Roman, has been charged with carrying and firing the gun that apparently brought police to the area. The gun was recovered near where Toledo was shot, and investigators had matched it with cartridge casings found at the scene where Roman had been firing, authorities have said.

The video was shown to the Toledo family Tuesday night by COPA officials , who are tasked with investigating police shootings in the city. Officials delayed the public release of the material, which is required by city policy, at the request of the family.

The investigation into whether the officer followed department use of force rules is in its early stages, officials said this week.

“COPA is committed to completing a full, thorough and objective investigation of the entire incident which includes not only the officer’s use of deadly force but also the actions of other involved officers leading up to and following the deadly shooting to determine whether each officers’ actions complied with (Police) Department policy directives and training” a COPA statement read.

As a matter of routine, COPA refers its police shooting investigations to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office for a review of whether criminal charges could be warranted. COPA may also refer the shooting cases to federal prosecutors if COPA suspects the civil rights of the person shot by the officer were violated.

Cook County State’s Atty. Kim Foxx’s office has declined to comment on the case. The U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago indicated it was aware of the situation but a spokesman declined to comment further.

Meanwhile, Chicago was left to absorb the images of Toledo’s shooting during an already tense week where national issues related to policing and race were already at the forefront. The trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the killing of George Floyd was in its final stages, and another officer in a Minneapolis-area community, Brooklyn Center, was charged with second-degree manslaughter for this week’s fatal shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright during a traffic stop.

Chicago police have been making preparations in case of any civil unrest resulting from the video release, officials said. Sources said several specialized Chicago police units were preparing this week for possible major protests or disturbances.

Roman was in court Saturday for a bond hearing after being charged with firing a gun as he stood next to Toledo that night. He was charged with felonies including child endangerment, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and reckless discharge of a firearm after being arrested Friday.

The Toledo family left COPA’s offices Tuesday evening without commenting on the details of the video. Their lawyer’s office released a statement Tuesday night saying attorneys there would continue their own investigation.

“The experience was extremely difficult and heartbreaking for everyone present and especially for Adam’s family,” the statement said of the video viewing.

The family was expected to address the media Thursday afternoon.

After Toledo was shot, police were not able to identify him immediately because he was not carrying a cell phone or an identification, officials have said.

When police questioned Roman the night of the shooting, he at first gave a false name for Toledo, then a few hours later denied knowing who he was with, authorities said.

Detectives then searched missing persons reports from the neighborhood to see if any matched Toledo’s description. They found one and contacted the family March 31. Toledo was identified that day by his family, and the next day the department confirmed his age and the Cook County medical examiner’s office released his name.

News that such a young person had been fatally shot by police touched off immediate tension and protests in Little Village, with calls for the release of the footage, arrest of the officer and massive reforms to policing — including the now common call for the department be stripped of funding all together.

But there were also more quiet, somber vigils for Toledo, who was remembered as a cherished part of his extended family.

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