United States: shock after video of policeman shooting 13-year-old
Chicago residents march to protest the death of Adam Toledo, a young Latin American shot by a police officer, on April 15, 2021. AP - Tyler LaRiviere
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
The Chicago authorities released this Thursday, April 15, a video of a police officer shooting a 13-year-old minor.
Images "
unbearable
" according to the mayor of the third largest city in the United States, who called for calm.
Publicity
Read more
In the video from the officer's pedestrian camera, the police are chasing Adam Toledo, a Latino.
The scene takes place on March 29 at 2:30 a.m.
Officers ordered the 13-year-old to stop and show them his hands.
Then we shoot him as the teenager stops and throws his hands in the air.
According to the assistant district attorney for the county where Chicago is located, Adam Toledo was carrying a gun on him at the time.
Except that no no weapon is visible in his hands on the video.
During a press conference this Thursday before the broadcast of these images, the
mayor of Chicago, Lori Lightfoot
, described them as "
unsustainable
", calling on residents to calm at a time when tensions around police violence are already lively in the country.
In the midst of the
trial of the white police officer accused of the death of black forty-something George Floyd
in May 2020, a young African-American man, Daunte Wright, was killed in Minneapolis by a police officer who claims to have confused his service weapon and his Taser.
"
Whether Adam was an altar boy or was involved in some untoward activity, the point is that he was walking down the street and was shot, unarmed
" by the time he was killed, the lawyer for the Toledo family, Adeena Weiss-Ortiz, told the press.
"
Police violence epidemic
"
Police were called after reports of gunfire and chased the teenager and a 21-year-old man who was with him, Ruben Roman, on foot.
The latter was quickly arrested, while a police officer continued to pursue Adam Toledo before shooting him.
On Thursday, the deputy prosecutor who said Adam Toledo was carrying a gun when he was shot was criticized by a spokeswoman for the Cook County prosecutor.
The latter told the local channel WGN that this prosecutor was "
not fully informed before speaking at a hearing
."
The footage is "
gruesome, traumatic, and [is] yet another reminder of the epidemic of police violence we continue to experience in America, and the urgent need for police reform!"
George Floyd's family attorney Ben Crump tweeted.
I have seen the bodycam video of Chicago PD killing 13-YEAR-OLD Adam Toledo.
I will not be posting it here or anywhere else.
It's horrifying, traumatic, and another reminder of the police brutality epidemic we continue to face in America - and the urgent need for police reform !!
- Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) April 15, 2021
Small groups gathered in downtown Chicago on Thursday to peacefully protest the teenager's death after the footage was released.
"
Lock up the cops!"
Some chanted, according to local media.
►
To listen: Chauvin trial: "This case is not representative of police violence in the United States"
with AFP
Newsletter
Receive all international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
United States
Racism
On the same subject
United States: Chauvin trial nears end, ex-police officer refuses to testify
International guest
Chauvin trial: "This case is not representative of police violence in the United States"
United States
Lori Lightfoot, the new black and gay mayor of Chicago