Mother Jones reports that Chicago Police took two days to inform the mother of a 13-year-old child shot and killed by an officer that her son was dead. She was not allowed to immediately see Adam Toledo’s body, and was asked to identify him through a picture. Only later was she informed how he died, the report said. “In the days after Chicago police killed the boy, Elizabeth Toledo wasn’t the only one kept in the dark; city officials were also slow to provide key details to the public,” Mother Jones said.
That included omitting key details about the child in statements to the media and public. In an initial statement on March 29, police referred to the boy as an “offender.” A family lawyer said he had no criminal history. A second statement on April 1 then called him a “juvenile,” but still didn’t list his age. “[I]t took reporters digging through an autopsy ledger to break the news about his age that day, according to Lakeidra Chavis, a Chicago-based reporter at the Trace, which covers gun violence.”
Block Club Chicago reports that outraged and saddened members from the largely Latino Little Village community held a vigil for the boy on Friday, several days after he was shot and killed by police at 2:30 in the morning last Monday. Both Mother Jones and Block Club Chicago report that Adam had been missing from home until last Sunday, when his mom says he reappeared. But Adam left again when night fell, and when police asked Elizabeth for his picture on Wednesday, she assumed it was for the missing persons report she’d filed when he initially disappeared. She did not know her child was already dead.
“In an initial police statement more than 12 hours after the shooting, officials said one ‘armed male’ was running from officers, who chased him,” Block Club Chicago reported. “The ‘foot pursuit ensued which resulted in a confrontation in the alley. … The officer fired his weapon striking the offender in the chest.’ Police have described the encounter as an ‘armed confrontation.’ A photo of a gun was shared by a police spokesman on Twitter, but police have not answered additional questions about the shooting or who the gun belonged to.”
Mother Jones reported that officials initially declined to release body-cam footage of the shooting, in a statement citing the child’s age. But they then backtracked the next day, saying in a second statement that officials “determined that certain provisions of state law intended to protect the confidentiality of juvenile records do not prohibit the agency’s release of material related to its investigation of a Chicago Police Officer’s fatal shooting of 13-year old Adam Toledo.”
Mother Jones reports that the officer who shot and killed Adam has been placed on administrative leave for a month. “Alderwoman Rossana Rodriguez told Block Club that incidents like the case have left her with little trust for the police,” the report continued. “’For a very long time the police have been taken at their word. We’re not accepting that anymore,’ she said. ‘You shot a 13 year old.’” Following the protest in support of Adam on Friday, Little Village Community Council member Kristian Armendariz told Block Club Chicago that “[i]f we don’t speak our voice, they are going to keep covering up death. Today we are here for Adam but also to try and change CPD’s corruption.”
"Adam Toledo was killed early Monday morning, due to the unreasonable conduct of a Chicago Police Officer,” ABC 7 Chicago reports the boy’s family said in a statement. “We are confident that the Chicago Police Department and the Civilian Office of Police Accountability will conduct a thorough investigation, that there will be transparency, and that Toledo Family wilt [sic] find out the truth of what happened to Adam. Adam was killed on March 29th, 2021, but the Toledo Family was only notified of his death two days later.”
“Adam was a seventh grade student at Garvey School, enjoyed sports and was a good kid,” the family continued in the statement. “He did not deserve to die the way he did. The Toledo Family will seek justice for this reprehensible crime and requests privacy during this time of mourning.”
