Holy shit. The just-released bodycam footage of the shooting death of 13-year-old Adam Toledo by Chicago PD is just…I don’t have the words. CPD originally described it as an “armed confrontation”.
The bodycam video shows a 13-year-old kid being executed by a police officer. It’s utterly horrifying.
EDIT: you really do not want to watch that video if you can help yourself.
The kid is running from cops. Dunno why they’re chasing him.
The cop yells “Stop! Right fucking now!”
Adam Toledo stops.
“Show me your hands!”
Adam Toledo turns and raises his hands.
The cop shoots him in the chest.
Almost as horrifying: the attempted coverup of this murder, the implication that Toledo had a gun (he did not), and the fact that if there wasn’t bodycam footage this would’ve all been swept under the rug.
The story is that he was with an older kid, a man really. The man had a gun, fired it at someone. Police came and gave chase. Their story was that they caught him in the alley and he pointed a gun and they shot him. Of course the body camera video shows that isn’t true. They are still claiming that the kid had a gun, and that you can see it in the video, but I can’t see anything that is definitely a gun in any frame, and it’s clear that when the kid raises his hands, the hands are empty. If he had a gun, he dropped it before the shooting.
Also, agree that you really do not want to watch the video.
Having watched the video, I can’t tell if he’s armed or not. I lean towards not from what I saw, but the video is fuzzy and things happened so fast. I do note that the CNN article on the story includes this:
CNN teams have viewed the footage, which appears to show less than one second pass between the time Adam Toledo draws a handgun and an officer fires a single, fatal shot that hits him in the chest.
Thanks for the context. I wasn’t sure what the story was for why they were chasing the two.
And yeah, the other guy is 21 I think.
I’ve seen something in the video that people are claiming is a gun, but it looks to me like it could actually be something far behind the kid, in the background, a pole or something sticking up out of the ground. In the frame where it looks like it is in his hand, it looks like it could be a gun. But it’s visible in the background sticking out of the ground after he has been shot and is on the ground.
No way the cop positively ID’ed a gun in that brief glimpse.
Nesrie
2755
Not really up to watching a child die, but the consensus seems to be the cop made a demand and then didn’t actually wait for the boy to comply, just shot him as he did?
That’s what I saw, absolutely.
It’s worse, really. He shot the kid while the kid was complying with the demand.
I saw it once and won’t watch it again for all the coal in Newcastle, but yeah. Toledo (from what I saw) appears to be putting his hands straight into the air when he’s shot. They’re over his head.
Nesrie
2759
So the cop just needs to say they feared for their life… won’t take much doubt with that tiny little hurdle of a bar.
Sharpe
2760
So I watched a frame by frame of the video and Toledo does NOT have a gun in his hand. There’s a bright spot near his hand which is clearly a light on the pole in the background, and not a gun. You can see the light later on, not moving, after Toledo collapses. Also, the speed with which the officer fired is damn near instantaneous.
Given the way that white suspects who are armed or other harming officers are routinely brought in alive, this is just ridiculous.
As to the gun that was allegedly found on the ground near Toledo, there needs to be a major investigation. Either it’s Toledo’s gun, and he dumped it right before being shot (which is possible) or it’s a plant (which is also possible.) He definitely did not have a gun in his hand.
jpinard
2761
So what’s the situation with the cop who shot him? Did he get fired? Promoted? Is a murder case being brought against him?
Aceris
2762
You don’t understand. He was rapidly moving his hand. It could have been a gun! A police force cannot possibly function without the right to gun down anyone who might remotely concievably pose any kind of threat.
Enough Americans expect the police to respond to any and all situations with overwhelming force that few of these situations will go anywhere. At least as long as the police is white.
Not that it’s a purely American issue, it’s human, over here every time the police shoots someone, court case, sometimes prison. And every time there’s people complaining how that just means the police won’t do squat next time.
With a black man, or a black child really, this is the rule.
Just some context, if you watch the officers bodycam there are two guys, Alex and the adult 21y old, it is known on the street that as an adult you get a tougher sentence than a child, These kids are there for this express purpose, shoot the gun and hand it off and run and dump. The officer actually pushes the 21y old to the ground and his partner cuffs him and he runs after Alex. Alex has his left side to the cop and there is one frame where it looks like he has the gun in right hand. then there is a movement and he turn and puts his hands up and the officer shoots him. This is a fraction of a second it happens so fast but I assume the cops are actually trained for this stuff and he did not give the kid enough time. You then watch the officer call for an ambo and then start CPR then they apply a dressing to the wound and someone else takes over CPR, the officer decompresses and is walking around and they show the gun behind the fence with the slide out and muzzle pointing to the ground. At no point do any of the cops that show up afterwards, that anyone walks behind the fence and also the cops are very matter of fact and not cheering or congratulating the guy like you hear sometimes. And they do what they can to keep him alive. But you can tell its a fatal wound immediately. This was a bad shoot.
I agree it is not something a normal person should watch, You can almost hear the agonal breathing and you see his eyes roll up.
As a hispanic guy this shit is really bothersome because even though he has a gun and even though “why is he out at 2am” he does not deserve a death sentence. We really do have two types of justice. And fuck those people who are why is he out so late. Everyone has a story were they were out later than they should be probably up to no good but doesn’t merit a death sentence
So, the news is reporting that there is security video from the reverse direction that shows this kid with a gun, and right before he turns around, he tosses it underhanded into the yard behind that gap in the fence.
Not that that matters in the least. What you see is that he turned around, hands up, and his hands were empty. And then he’s murdered. He complies, but it doesn’t matter.
Good thread from John Holbo about how conservative gun rights philosophy drives the police violence.
Yes, this. Even if he had a gun, he tossed it and was surrendering, following the cop’s instructions.
The cop just immediately blew him away. I’ve seen some fucked up videos of cops shooting unarmed people excessively but they usually wait a lot longer before firing. One of the worst was even after shooting the person and they are squirming on the ground the cops continue to fire bullets into the guys body while barking orders as if the shot person is even listening to them at that point anymore.
It’s robotic in it’s cruelty.
