Latino groups calling for federal investigation of Adam Toledo killing: report

by Celine Castronuovo - 04/20/21 7:30 AM ET

A coalition of Latino lawyers and community organizations is reportedly calling on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate last month’s fatal police shooting of 13-year-old Adam Toledo in Chicago.

The Associated Press reported that the group, which includes the Hispanic Lawyers Association of Illinois and the Pilsen Law Center, is expected to submit a formal request Tuesday.

In addition to a DOJ probe, the coalition will also demand that Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) push for faster implementation of court-supervised policing changes in the city, end foot pursuits by police officers and devote federal COVID-19 relief funds to young people in the Little Village neighborhood, where Toledo lived and was killed, the AP reported.

Chicago’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) last week released body camera footage of the March 29 incident in which a police officer, later identified as Eric Stillman, was chasing the 13-year-old in the predominantly Latino neighborhood.

Stillman, who is white, ordered Toledo to stop, after which Toledo can be seen turning around and raising his hands in a surrender pose.

While police claim that the boy was holding a gun, this was not immediately clear from the video.

Stillman in the body camera footage can be heard telling Toledo to drop the weapon twice before shooting the 13-year-old in the chest.

The footage has prompted a wave of protests across the city demanding accountability and police reform.

Lightfoot has told residents that an independent review agency is completing an investigation into the incident, but added she understands “that the surge of outrage around it is rooted in a long legacy of trauma in our city and country around police violence,” according to the AP.

A Chicago prosecutor was placed on leave Saturday after a spokesperson for the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office said that the lawyer did not “fully inform himself” of the circumstances surrounding the Toledo shooting before he claimed in court that the boy had a gun on him.