Civil rights trial over Chicago police shooting that killed Adam Toledo starts Monday
A jury will convene Monday to decide if the Chicago Police Department is liable for the death of 13-year-old Adam Toledo in 2021.
Officer Eric Stillman shot and killed Toledo after a foot chase in an alley near 24th Street and Sawyer Avenue in the Little Village neighborhood, less than a second — to be precise, 838 milliseconds — after Toledo dropped a gun he had been carrying.
Video footage released weeks after the shooting shows Toledo and 21-year-old Ruben Roman standing on a street corner when several shots were fired early on the morning of March 29. Both then ran past a church and into a nearby alley. Body camera footage shows an officer chasing Toledo down the alley, telling the boy to show the officer his hands.
Toledo can then be seen stopping near a gap in the fence in the alley, with both hands at his side, his left shoulder facing the officer. When the video is slowed down, a frame of the footage does appear to show a gun in Toledo's hand just before he raises his arms and the officer opens fire. Surveillance video of the same moment from a different angle appears to show Toledo with his right arm behind the fence, possibly making a throwing motion, and then turning back toward the officer.
However, at the moment when the officer opens fire, the body camera video shows Toledo has his hands up, and they appear to be empty.
The shooting prompted protests over police use of force, and calls for police to stop foot pursuits altogether until the department overhauls its chase policies.
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability in 2022 recommended that Stillman be fired. However, then police Supt. David Brown did not agree, but instead recommended that Stillman be suspended for no more than five days. Then-Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx declined to charge officer Eric Stillman in Toledo's death.
The civil trial that begins Monday will likely be very emotional for Toledo's family, who held a memorial last month marking five years since his death.
