"It hurts": Latino community of 13-year-old killed by police in Chicago reels after shooting
18 April 2021
Residents of Little Village, a well-known and predominantly Latino neighborhood in Chicago, are grieving the death of Adam Toledo, a 13-year-old Mexican American boy from the neighborhood who was shot and killed by a police officer on March 29, NBC News reports.
Why it matters: Adam Toledo's killing shines a spotlight on police shootings of Latinos, who are killed by law enforcement at the second-highest rate after Black Americans, according to data from the Washington Post.
Residents have placed flowers and votive candles at in the street that Toledo was killed alongside a makeshift altar bearing his name. On Friday a local artist unveiled a mural of Toledo in the alleyway where he was shot.
Many residents have expressed how painful it was to see the police body camera footage of Toledo's shooting.
- "It hurts, because he is a little kid," Toledo's aunt Theresa Chavarria told NBC news.
- “He didn’t have nothing in his hands when the cop shot at him. As a matter of fact, he had his hands up and they still killed him,” local resident Jesus Hernández told the Chicago Tribune. “After watching it, I feel like I have to worry about my own safety because we don’t know how the cops are going to react,” he said.
While city authorities braced for protests after the release of the body camera footage Thursday, community gatherings have remained peaceful, per the Tribune.
- A few dozen people gathered in protest outside local police headquarters to call for Mayor Lori Lightfoot's resignation, criticizing the mayor's call for calm.
- Several peaceful marches took place in Chicago Thursday night, with residents calling for the police to be held accountable, per the Chicago Tribune.
Go deeper:Prosecutor on leave for failing to "fully present the facts" after shooting of 13-year-old boy
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.