Adam, a 13-year-old boy, was shot by a police officer in the United States: the video of the tragedy shocks the country
Sylvie Claire / April 16, 2021
Chicago authorities released Thursday a video of a police officer shooting a 13-year-old minor, unbearable images according to the mayor of the third largest city in the United States.
In the video from the officer's dashcam, the officer can be seen chasing Adam Toledo, ordering him to stop and show him his hands. Then he shoots him just as the teenager has stopped and just raised his hands in the air.
A prosecutor said Adam Toledo was armed, but no weapon is visible in his hands on the video
At a press conference Thursday before the images were released, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot called them unbearable, calling on residents to remain calm at a time when tensions around police violence are already high in the country.
In the midst of the trial of the white police officer charged with the death of black 40-year-old George Floyd in May 2020, a young African-American man, Daunte Wright, was shot and killed in Minneapolis by a policewoman who claims to have mistaken her service weapon for a Taser.
Whether Adam was a choirboy or was involved in some untoward activity, the fact is that he was walking down the street and was shot, unarmed at the time he was killed, Toledo family attorney Adeena Weiss-Ortiz denounced to the press.
The teenager was shot on March 29 at about 2:30 am. Police were called on reports of shots fired, and gave chase on foot to the teenager and a 21-year-old man who was with him, Ruben Roman. The latter was quickly arrested; a police officer had continued to pursue Adam Toledo before shooting him.
An assistant prosecutor in the county where Chicago is located said Adam Toledo was carrying a gun when he was shot. But on Thursday, a spokeswoman for the Cook County prosecutor told local station WGN that this prosecutor had not fully informed himself before speaking at a hearing.
The images are horrific, traumatic, and (are) yet another reminder of the epidemic of police violence we continue to suffer in America, and the urgent need for police reform! tweeted Ben Crump, attorney for George Floyd's family.