CHICAGO — Reversing course after pressure by city officials and the public, the police department's oversight board announced Friday it would release body camera video showing an officer fatally shooting a 13-year-old boy in the chest.
The Chicago Police Department's civilian oversight office had said Thursday that it could not release the video because the victim was underage.
The boy, Adam Toledo, was shot in the chest and killed early Monday morning after authorities were alerted to possible shots fired in the Little Village neighborhood, a predominately Latino community.
Adam was shot in an alley following a foot pursuit, according to a statement from the police department, which did not release the officer's name. The boy was pronounced dead at the scene, the department said.
The police department claims a gun was recovered at the scene.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Police Superintendent David Brown had released statements Thursday calling for the Civilian Office of Police Accountability to release the video, but the office had said in a statement that it could not legally do so because the victim was a juvenile.
Adam was the third person shot by Chicago police this week, according to NBC affiliate WMAQ in Chicago. The two previous shootings took place on Wednesday.
The TV station obtained police radio audio in which police officers were told to shut off their body cameras three times, just seven minutes after being called to the scene.
In 2019, a judge ruled in a lawsuit filed by WMAQ that the law the city cited in its argument to not release the video applied only to victims who survived police misconduct and not to minors who were victims of fatal police misconduct.
WMAQ had said previously that it would file a Freedom of Information Act request for release of the body camera video.
The shooting comes months after the city was scrutinized for how it handled police bodycam video showing a woman, Anjanette Young, being handcuffed while naked in her home in 2019 in what the police department called a botched raid.
