CHICAGO — COPA, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, charged with investigating shootings by Chicago police officers, said Tuesday that state law prohibits it from releasing video and other materials related to CPD’s fatal shooting of a 16-year-old boy over the weekend.
The Sun-Times reported that Alex Cortez left his home in suburban Plainfield on Saturday afternoon to attend a party with friends in Pilsen. He died shortly after Chicago police officers shot him in the 1800 block of South Blue Island around 1:16 a.m. Sunday.
Without identifying Cortez by name, CPD said on Sunday that their investigation determined that he was one of two people who opened fire on a nearby vehicle, leaving two of its occupants in critical condition.
The CPD statement said two officers assigned to its Robbery Task Force heard gunfire and encountered “encountered armed offenders, at which point both officers fired their weapons.” Cortez was killed, but police did not say what happened to the other “armed offenders.”
On Tuesday afternoon, COPA released a statement that generally echoed CPD’s press release: Officers on patrol heard shots fired and then “encountered two armed individuals, which led to both officers firing their weapons, striking one of the individuals, who was later identified as a juvenile.”
Both CPD and COPA said police recovered a firearm at the scene. Police said it was in “slide lock,” a term meaning that the top of a semi-automatic weapon is in an open position. Typically, semi-automatic handguns go into slide lock when they run out of ammunition.
Neither CPD nor COPA revealed whether Cortez or the other “armed offender” threatened police officers with their weapons or shot at them.
According to COPA’s statement, the state’s Juvenile Court Act prohibits the release of video and other materials related to the shooting. The agency typically releases video, reports, ShotSpotter data, and other materials within 60 days of fatal shootings.
The agency will continue to investigate whether the officers’ use of force was consistent with CPD’s policies and training, according to the statement.
In 2021, after a Chicago police officer fatally shot 13-year-old Adam Toledo, COPA released a collection of evidence, including the bodyworn camera footage of an officer shooting Toledo.
A COPA spokesperson said today that a court ruling handed down in 2022 now prohibits them from releasing video of shootings involving juveniles:
“In an opinion in William Calloway v. The Chicago Police Department (19 CH 11308) filed on March 24, 2022, the Illinois Appellate Court determined the Juvenile Court Act still applies to a deceased juvenile. This decision was not in place at the time of Adam Toledo’s death in March 2021. COPA’s position on this matter therefore changed as a result of [the] Calloway decision and we have been consistent since that point.”
— COPA spokesperson
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