Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Chicago on Friday night demanding police reform, a day after the city released body cameras from the deadly police shooting of 13-year-old Adam Toledo.
Videos and photos on social media showed protesters walking along the streets of the Logan Square neighborhood, with signs saying “Justice for Adam” and “No More Murder Cops”.
Hundreds have gathered in Chicago to protest the murder of 13-year-old Adam Toledo by police pic.twitter.com/53CVZK8MzG
– philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) April 16, 2021
Photo that better shows how masculine people are already here. #Chicago #AdamToledo pic.twitter.com/9egbwaqask
– Tyler LaRiviere (@TylerLaRiviere) April 16, 2021
Local ABC-affiliated WLS reported some protesters planned to march to Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot
Lori Lightfoot Bodycam footage of officer fatally shooting 13-year-old freed Chicago mayor urges calm amid release of shooting video Public health doctors, Chicago mayor throws first pitch in Cubs opener MORE‘s (D) house nearby, the police prevented this.
Most of the protests were peaceful on Friday, but WLS noted that a small group of protesters clashed with police later in the evening.
The camera footage of the body, released Thursday by Chicago’s Office of Police Accountability, showed Toledo during the March 29 incident of a police officer walking down an alley before the officer ordered him to stop.
Toledo then turned and raised his hands in a surrender pose, at which point police said they saw the 13-year-old holding a gun, although this is not immediately apparent from the video.
The officer, who has since been identified as Eric Stillman, can be heard in the video telling Toledo to drop the weapon twice before shooting the 13-year-old in the chest.
Protesters urged Chicago and Lightfoot police to take action in response to the shooting, calling it another case of unjustified use of force.
The head of the Chicago Police Union, John Catanzara, claimed on Thursday that the police were shooting “100 percent justified.”
“That officer’s actions were actually heroic,” he said during an interview on CNN’s “Cuomo Prime Time”. “There is a very good reason he only fired once.”
“He could have been shot multiple times, but the officer judged it in a split second,” said Catanzara.
Others have also defended the officer’s actions, including former Washington, DC, Police Chief Charles Ramsey, who told CNN’s Anderson Cooper: “Tragic as it was, the shooting was fair.”
Opposition to Stillman’s actions has continued after the Cook County State Attorney’s office in Illinois said Thursday that a prosecutor who claimed in court that Toledo had a gun against him did not “fully” inform himself before testifying.