On first anniversary of fatal police shooting of 13-year-old Adam Toledo, activists want immediate CPD policy changes
CHICAGO (CBS) -- One year after 13-year-old Adam Toledo was shot and killed by a Chicago police officer during a foot chase in Little Village, his mother and others will call on the Chicago Police Department to immediately enact changes to its foot pursuit policy.
The planned rally comes two weeks after Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx declined to charge Officer Eric Stillman in Toledo's death, but said she has "deep concerns" about CPD's foot chase policy.
Last week, Foxx announced neither her office nor an appellate prosecutor's office could find enough evidence to support criminal charges in either the shooting of Adam Toledo or 22-year-old Anthony Alvarez just days later.
She also said while officers in both cases might have violated Chicago Police Department foot pursuit policies during the two incidents, there is not sufficient evidence that they committed a crime, noting that in both cases, the officers reasonably feared for their lives.
Stillman shot and killed Toledo after a foot chase in an alley near 24th Street and Sawyer Avenue in Little Village on March 29, 2021, less than a second — to be precise, 838 milliseconds — after Toledo dropped a gun he had been carrying.
Video footage released weeks after the shooting shows Toledo and 21-year-old Ruben Roman standing on a street corner when several shots were fired early on the morning of March 29. Both then ran past a church and into a nearby alley. Body camera footage shows an officer chasing Toledo down the alley, telling the boy to show the officer his hands.
Toledo can then be seen stopping near a gap in the fence in the alley, with both hands at his side, his left shoulder facing the officer. When the video is slowed down, a frame of the footage does appear to show a gun in Toledo's hand just before he raises his arms and the officer opens fire. Surveillance video of the same moment from a different angle appears to show Toledo with his right arm behind the fence, possibly making a throwing motion, and then turning back toward the officer.
However, at the moment when the officer opens fire, the body camera video shows Toledo has his hands up, and they appear to be empty.
Foxx cited that surveillance video footage when describing the decision not to charge Stillman with a crime.
Foxx noted that less than one second passed from the time Toledo began turning towards the officer and raising his hand, and the moment Stillman shot him.
The shooting prompted protests over police use of force, and calls for the police to halt foot pursuits altogether until the department completely overhauls its foot chase policy.
While Foxx said the evidence in the shootings of Toledo and Alvarez supports both officers' claims they feared for their lives, she also said she has "deep, deep concerns" about the Chicago Police Department's foot pursuit policy after her review of the two cases, and believes the department needs to make sure its policy protects the safety of both officers and civilians.
"We have to ask ourselves, was this worth the effort?" she said. "I think the deaths that we have seen, and the risks to our officers absolutely necessitates that we have a foot pursuit policy that keeps everyone safe."
While CPD implemented a temporary foot pursuit policy last summer, the department later delayed full implementation of a new foot chase policy, citing the need for further review, and a newly revised policy was unveiled last month. After allowing for two weeks of public comment, CPD is now analyzing feedback before finalizing the policy this summer.
The repeated delays in implementing the new foot pursuit policy have prompted Little Village leaders to organize a rally Tuesday afternoon, the first anniversary of Toledo's death.
"We want to avoid another Adam Toledo. We don't want to have more of our children killed by the police department," said Baltazar Enriquez, president of the Little Village Community Council.
Enriquez said Tuesday afternoon's rally is both a remembrance of Toledo's life, and a call for CPD to immediately enact the new foot chase policy, adding that kids can be arrested without being killed.
"Black and Brown communities are the ones that are always being killed, and today we're just asking for a little justice, and we're going to protest until we get that justice," he said.
The rally is scheduled for 4 p.m. outside Farragut High School.
Toledo's mother also had been expected to speak out at Foxx's office at noon on Tuesday to call for a special prosecutor in the case, but she did not show up.
