Hundreds of people demonstrated in the streets of Chicago on Friday to protest the police shooting Adam of ToledoThe day after police released a body camera video showing the fatal shooting of the 13-year-old with his hands raised in the air.
Around a thousand people gathered Friday evening in a park on the northwest side of Chicago, some of them holding signs that read “Stop Killing Children” and “CPD Cannot Be Fixed.” A copper band played the music as the crowd chanted, “No justice, no peace.”
The protesters stood for a minute of silence and expressed their solidarity with the boy’s relatives, who pleaded with the protesters to remain peaceful. The gathering began at Logan Square Park, about five miles (8 kilometers) north of the shooting site.
Dulce Rodriguez, 34, held a banner that read, “We are Adam of Toledo.” Her 5-year-old daughter Vida waved a large Mexican flag.
“This could have been anyone’s child,” said Rodriquez, who lost his cousin to armed violence in June.
A white officer was killed in Toledo last month. The Chicago Civil Police Accountability Office released footage of the accident on Thursday. Contrary to what authorities previously indicated that he was carrying a weapon, the video appeared to show nothing in the teenager’s hands.
Speaking Friday on the floor of the House of Representatives in Illinois, state representative Edgar Gonzalez, who lives four blocks from where Toledo died, described the killing as a “murder” and expressed his frustration at what he described as the very familiar pattern of police abuse.
“So if you raise your hands, they shoot. If you lower your hands, they shoot.” Gonzales said, “If you walk, run, hide, sleep, you do exactly as they say, they’re still shooting.” So I asked the members of this room, what are we supposed to be. To do? “
Chicago Mayor, Lori Lightfoot, called for calm Thursday, bearing in mind the violence that occurred earlier this week at protests in Minnesota over the shooting of Don Wright, a 20-year-old black man in the Brooklyn Center. A white police officer alleged that she mistakenly thought her service pistol was a Taser. The Minneapolis suburban killing came amid the murder trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin who killed George Floyd in the city last year.
Hundreds of protesters have gathered outside the heavily guarded Brooklyn Police Station every night since former officer Kim Potter shot Wright during a traffic stop on Sunday. Police have expelled protesters with tear gas, rubber bullets, grenades and long lines of riot police, in tactics denounced by Mike Elliott, mayor of the Brooklyn Center.
Anger is also simmering in Chicago over the deaths of two young blacks last month. Anthony AlvarezAnd 22 and Travon Shadwell, 18, at the hands of the police.
“Adam has let us down,” she said at a touching press conference with leaders of the Latino community before the video was publicly released.
Adam was shot dead by police on March 29 after chasing officers on foot.
At the time of shooting, he is He was with Robin Roman, Aged 21, who was charged with several felonies related to that night including endangering children and reckless firing of a firearm.
Authorities had initially indicated that Adam had a pistol in his hand when he turned toward the officers during the chase, after failing to comply with orders to stop.
But the video clip filmed on the body showed Adam pausing while the officer screamed behind him, turning and raising his hands, without any sign of a weapon. The officer then shot the boy in the chest from a short distance, on Thursday, as Eric Stillman, 34, who has been with the department since August 2015.
The footage continues to focus on what appears to be a pistol on the ground near where Adam was shot. Prosecutors in Roman’s case said it was a Ruger 9mm semi-automatic pistol, and that Adam’s hand tested positive for bullet residue.
Dozens of residents gathered in the small village on Thursday night to express their anger, after the footage was published.
Thursday’s protests in Little Village, which has a population of 75,000 with roughly 80% of Mexican descent, and elsewhere in the city, were mostly peaceful. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that a group of about 50 gathered at Millennium Park and marched to the police headquarters downtown.
An activist, former mayoral candidate, Jamal Green, tore down the police tape surrounding the building and demanded Lightfoot’s resignation due to the shooting. The newspaper said.
Lori Lightfoot herself said, “Oh, we need to find out why he has a gun. “It shouldn’t have been there,” Green said.
“Now you want to say let’s calm the city down. But when do you say let’s calm down these killings by the police department?”
Among the demonstrators in the group that rushed through the adjacent West Loop district, Gloria Pennix, an activist who His 27-year-old son, Darius, was shot dead by Chicago police In 2011. Her family later received an illegal settlement of death from the city.
“I want to tell Mum, ‘I’m here with you in solidarity.’ ‘Benix said,’ We’ll fight with you all the way. ‘ According to ABC7 News.
As the protests continued, news broke that another teenager was killed in the small village, a 17-year-old girl named Lydia Jimenez, who was shot in a car in the West Side. No arrests were made.
Lightfoot did not speak at the press conference about earlier reports of Adam carrying a gun, with prosecutors accusing Roman Alleged. The mayor confirmed that “there is no evidence whatsoever that Adam Toledo shot the police.”
The Toledo family, who saw the video on Tuesday, originally requested that the recording not be immediately released to the public.
“We acknowledge that the release of this video is the first step in the process towards healing the family, society and our city,” Read a joint statement Made by Lightfoot and the Toledo Family Advocate.
His mother, Elizabeth Toledo, said in the statement that Adam had a “great imagination and curiosity”, loved animals and rides his bike and was fascinated by zombies.
“He even had this zombie apocalypse bag packed and ready to go. God have mercy on him.”
Increasing police accountability was a The main part From Lightfoot’s election program when she was running for mayor. She has worked in this role since 2019.
Agencies contributed to the reporting
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