Chicago police shot and killed a 13-year-old boy on the west side of town

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The boy, identified as Adam Toledo by the Cook County medical examiner, lived near where the shooting took place in the Little Village neighborhood.

According to the police’s initial statement, an officer had shot him in an “armed confrontation” and tweeted a photo of a gun that a spokesman said had been found on the spot.

In a follow-up statement, Chicago Police Commissioner David Brown released a statement on Thursday identifying the person shot by police as a youth, but he did not name the boy’s age and refused to disclose his name.

The officer was given 30 days of administrative duty, he said.

The boy’s mother wants to answer

During a press conference Friday, the boy’s mother, Elizabeth Toledo, said she wanted to know the truth about why the police shot her son.

“I just want to know what really happened to my baby,” Elizabeth Toledo said through sobs. “The police wouldn’t… they had many options, but they couldn’t kill him. They could have shot in the air in his leg, in his arm. I do not know. But kill my baby? ‘

Law enforcement officers are not trained to target legs and arms. Cedric Alexander, a nationally recognized police expert and former police chief, told CNN in 2017 that cops are tasked with aiming for the mid-mass of someone’s chest because this is the target they are most likely to hit and most likely to take the suspect. . down.

The family released a statement saying that although Toledo was murdered on Monday, his family had not been notified for two days, CNN partner WLS reported.

Adeena Weiss Ortiz, the family attorney, said on Friday that Toledo had been told by police that her son had died, but that she had not been informed that he had been shot and murdered until she met with the authorities in person.

Toledo said Adam was happy, loved animals and built legos. “He was still playing with Hot Wheels,” she said in tears.

Adam “was a good boy” with no criminal history, Ortiz said.

Early morning shoot

Police said officers responded to a call about shots fired around 1:30 am when they saw “ two men in a nearby alley. ” One of them was armed, according to the police, and fled the officers. An officer fired shots and hit a person in the chest.

The police said only that the boy was “declared dead on the spot” and did not specify the age of the person who shot the officer.

The Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA), which investigates incidents of violence by the Chicago police, is reviewing the shooting and released a statement after the boy’s age went public. According to the agency, the officer carried a camera and fired one shot.
The agency will release a video in the next 60 days, a COPA press release said Friday.

The agency previously said it was unable to release the accompanying video due to the boy’s age.

“COPA is currently working with the Toledo family and their representative to arrange a review of the troubling video footage,” the statement said.

The mayor and police commissioner have called for the release of the camera images of the body.

“While the investigation is ongoing, it is critical that COPA releases relevant videos first to the family and then to the public, as soon as possible, with appropriate protection given his age,” said the mayor.

Brown said Friday in a Twitter post that he was encouraged by COPA’s transparency in releasing the video.

“The public deserves a full view of the fractions of a second our agents have to take,” he tweeted.

CNN’s Melissa Alonso, Peter Nickeas and Hollie Silverman contributed to this story.

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