- Video was released Thursday showing the police killing of
Adam Toledo , 13. - Insider analyzed video of the last chaotic seconds to break down what happened.
- Toledo appeared to have a gun but dropped it and raised his hands before the officer shot him.
New footage released Thursday shows a
The footage, filmed on March 29 at about 3 a.m., was from the
The video shows Stillman leaving his vehicle, chasing Toledo down an alley, and shouting for him to stop.
What happens next takes less than two seconds. Stillman shouts commands while Toledo drops something from his right hand, raises his two empty hands, and is shot.
The police have described the item as a gun. Footage from later in Stillman's bodycam feed shows a discarded handgun a few feet from Toledo.
Insider analyzed the footage in slow motion to establish the sequence of events. Some elements are difficult to make out; the scene is dark, some parts are blurry, and Stillman was wearing a flashing light.
The footage lasts nine minutes and 22 seconds, beginning with Stillman driving before chasing Toledo on foot. COPA posted the footage on Vimeo. It's graphic: It shows Toledo's
There are 19 seconds between when Stillman leaves his vehicle and when he fatally shoots Toledo. There is less than a second between Toledo disposing of the item and Stillman firing the fatal shot.
At about the two-minute mark, Toledo obeys Stillman's instruction to stop running. Here's what comes next:
- "Hands!" Stillman shouts at Toledo at the 2:03.3 mark. 0.8 seconds pass.
- Toledo can be seen holding an item that appears to be a gun at the 2:04.1 mark. 0.3 seconds pass.
- Stillman continues to shout, saying "Show me your f---ing hands," by the 2:04.4 mark. 0.3 seconds pass.
- Stillman shouts "Drop it!" at the 2:04.7 mark. 0.03 seconds pass, a single frame of the video.
- Toledo puts his hands up at the 2:04.7 mark. They are empty. 0.3 seconds pass.
- Shots can be heard at the 2:05 mark.
All those actions happened in 1.8 seconds.
After the shooting, Stillman and another officer attempted to revive Toledo. Paramedics also tried to save him.
The police have said they found a handgun at the scene. The footage shows Stillman shining his flashlight on a handgun on the ground behind a fence near where he shot Toledo.
The Associated Press and The New York Times also concluded after analyzing the footage that Toledo had appeared to discard a firearm just before the officer shot him.
Before the video's release, there were differing claims about whether Toledo had been armed. The Chicago Police Department initially described the encounter as an "armed confrontation."
A prosecutor told a court days before the video was released that Toledo had a gun in his right hand when he was shot, but the prosecutor later withdrew that claim.
Adeena Weiss Ortiz, a lawyer for the Toledo family, has emphasized that Toledo's hands were empty when the officer fired the shot. She said at a press conference on Thursday that the footage showed that Toledo had been attempting to comply with the officer's orders.
-Reuters (@Reuters) April 16, 2021
"He tossed the gun," she said. "If he had a gun, he tossed it. The officer said, 'Show me your hands.' He complied. He turned around."
At another point in the press conference, she said, "If you're shooting an unarmed child with his hands in the air, it is an assassination."
Stillman's lawyer, Tim Grace, argued in a statement to the AP that the video showed that Stillman had made a reasonable decision.
"The juvenile offender had the gun in his right hand ... looked at the officer which could be interpreted as attempting to acquire a target and began to turn to face the officer attempting to swing the gun in his direction," Grace said.
"At this point the officer was faced with a life threatening and deadly force situation. All prior attempts to deescalate and gain compliance with all of the officer's lawful orders had failed."
The shooting took place in Little Village, a predominantly Latino and Black community in the West Side of Chicago. Toledo, who was Hispanic, was a seventh-grader.
Stillman had been responding to reports of shots fired when he chased Toledo.
Officers also arrested Ruben Roman, 21, whom prosecutors accused of firing the shots that prompted the police callout. Prosecutors charged Roman with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, reckless discharge of a firearm, and child endangerment.
Stillman has not been charged with any crimes and has been placed on leave during an inquiry into whether he followed correct use-of-force procedure when he killed Toledo, ABC 7 reported.