Update April 9 — A spokesperson for Adam Toledo’s family said they are unaware of any city plans to release video. (More here.)
Update April 15 — The Invisible Institute today updated its data on the officer who shot Toledo. According to the group, three complaints have been filed against the officer during his career. One complaint was deemed unfounded. One was closed without a finding. The third is pending.
The Chicago Police Department is preparing for the imminent release of video that shows an officer fatally shooting Adam Toledo in Little Village, according to an internal CPD email provided to CWBChicago.
Video of the shooting will be released Friday, April 9, and the department is “preparing for possible protests,” according to the email, which quotes a deputy chief. The plans were “subject to change,” the message said.
The message, transmitted Wednesday, instructed offers within the deputy chief’s division to have their full uniform ready at their stations and to prepare for the possibility of having their days off cancelled.
A CPD source who works in a unit not overseen by that deputy chief said they, too, have been told the video will be released Friday and that they should prepare for 12-hour shifts and no days off.
Public release of the video is not expected until after the 13-year-old’s family has an opportunity to see it privately first. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot this week said she hoped the family would have that chance “sooner rather than later.”
Police have said that an officer shot Toledo during a “confrontation” in an alley following a foot pursuit. Cops were responding to potential gunfire that was detected near the 2300 block of South Sawyer by SpotShotter technology around 2:30 a.m. on March 29, according to CPD. A source said 911 callers also reported hearing gunfire.
A CPD report says two fully uniformed officers who are assigned to a 10th District tactical team arrived at the scene and saw two males walking away from the area — one of the males was carrying a gun, police have said.
One of the officers, a 28-year-old Hispanic woman with 4-1/2 years on the job, chased after one of the subjects and took him into custody for resisting police. He was not armed. Her partner, a 34-year-old White man with almost six years on the force, went after Toledo, according to CPD records.
Neither of the officers has had any citizen complaints filed against them, according to data maintained by the Invisible Institute.
After the shooting, the officers immediately called for an ambulance and for other officers to bring an emergency medical kit to the scene, according to police radio transmissions.
Police were unable to identify Toledo until March 31 because he was not carrying identification, his fingerprints were not on file, and the man he was with provided a false name for him, according to CPD Supt. David Brown.
Within hours of learning Toledo’s age and identity, CPD conducted two simulated shut-downs of the Magnificent Mile, Loop, and River North areas. One drill was carried out around 7 p.m. on the 31st. Another followed a few hours later after a new shift of officers came on-duty for the night.
It is not clear if the drills were ordered due to concern about the Toledo shooting or as a precaution as the trial began for a Minneapolis police officer who is accused of murdering George Floyd last May.
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