A Chicago police oversight board released body-camera video Thursday of an officer fatally shooting a 13-year-old boy, images that Mayor Lori Lightfoot called “excruciating.”
The officer can be seen running down an alley, chasing Adam Toledo last month and ordering him to stop, according to footage made public by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability.
“Freeze stop! Stop right f—ing now! Hey show me your f—ing hands! Drop it, drop it,” the officer seems to say in the video before firing a shot.
The officer then radioed for help.
“Shots fired, shots fired, get an ambulance over here now,” he said as he tended to the mortally wounded teen. “Look at me, look at me, you all right?
About two hours before the video was released, Lightfoot warned Chicagoans to brace themselves for the “extremely difficult” images.
“It was excruciating,” Lightfoot old reporters ahead of the video’s release. “Watching the body-cam footage, which shows young Adam after he’s shot, is extremely difficult.”
She added: “And I would just say … as a mom, this is not something you want children to see.”
Toledo was allegedly in an alley with a 21-year-old man when police responded to a call of shots fired in the 2300 block of South Sawyer Avenue, shortly after 2:30 a.m. on March 29, authorities said.
The pair allegedly fled and police say one officer eventually opened fire on Toledo, hitting him in the chest before he was pronounced dead at the scene, officials said.
Police claim a weapon was recovered at the scene of the shooting.
Lightfoot said she did not believe Toledo fired on the officer. But she also credited that officer for immediately providing medical care.
“I’ve seen no evidence whatsoever he shot at police,” she said. “When you see … the footage, you’re going to see that officer spring into action to try to revive Adam, to call for medical assistance.”
Toledo’s family was shown the video in private on Tuesday, officials said.
Viewing the footage was “extremely difficult and heartbreaking for everyone present, and especially for Adam’s family,” according to the family’s legal team.
“We want to thank COPA for giving the Toledo family the opportunity to review body camera video and other evidence before its public release,” family attorney Joel Hirschhorn said in a statement.
Ruben Roman, the man with Toledo just before the fatal encounter with police, was arrested and charged with reckless discharge of a firearm, unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, endangerment of a child and violating probation, police said.
Prosecutors claimed they have video of Roman firing shots before police responded and arrested him. Another officer chased Toledo, who allegedly had a gun in his right hand when he was shot once in the chest, authorities said.
This is a developing story, please refresh here for updates.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
