Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Press Conference Transcript April 15: Police Shooting of 13-Year-Old Adam Toledo

Mayor Lori Lightfoot: (00:00)
… a Chicago police officer shot and killed a 13-year-old boy that we now know was Adam Toledo. Later today, the body-worn camera and pod camera and other video and audio footage, which captured the events leading up to and including the shooting will be released to the public after, first and foremost, being shown to the family and with their consent. I have seen those videos, and let me just say that they are incredibly difficult to watch, particularly at the end. I say that not only as a mother of a 13-year-old myself, but as a mayor who’s deeply passionate about protecting our young people.

Throughout my career, I’ve watched dozens of videos like this one and been to scenes of police shootings. As you’ll recall, it was my job for many years to investigate police-involved shootings. These videos and these moments are never easy to bear witness to, regardless of the circumstances. What I’ve learned is that you need to brace yourself beforehand. Let yourself feel the pain, and anguish and shock of these traumatic events to avoid becoming numb as you watch.

As more and more people see this footage, I want to ask, again, that everyone tuning in right now, think first and foremost about Adam Toledo, about what his family is enduring every single day since they’ve learned of his passing.

I also ask that each of us give them space to breathe. No parent should ever have a video broadcast widely of their child’s last moments, much less be placed in the terrible situation of losing their child in the first place. Even as our understanding of this incident continues to evolve, this remains a complicated and nuanced story, and we all must proceed with deep empathy and calm and importantly, peace.

In the two weeks since this tragedy occurred, I have spoken with many in the Little Village community, and we have leaders here with us today. This community has stepped up in incredible ways and wrapped their arms around this family and have been generous of time, and spirit and resources despite the fact that this community itself has experienced too much violence, too much heartache as a community in this past year alone. Community support is and will continue to be invaluable, not only as the investigation of this tragedy continues, but as we work that much harder to wrap our arms around our young people in Little Village and across our city.

Two facts about this tragedy remain clear. First, in the middle of the night, this child was in contact with an adult who had a gun and then ended up being shot and killed by a police officer. Second, there are too many young people in our city, boys and girls alike, who have been left vulnerable by systemic failures that we simply must fix.

These two realities urge us to reckon with and address the relationship between police, our communities, and especially our young people. And in turn, we must deal with the cancerous role of illegal firearms that plague every Chicago community.

We must continue to face and not ignore the fact that Chicago, as well as way too many parts of our country, has a long legacy of police violence and police misconduct that have left far too many residents, especially those who are black and brown, in a constant state of fear and pain. This legacy has only been exacerbated by the many challenges that have hit us as a city and individually over this past year alone, from the worst public health crisis in a hundred years to the worst economic crisis we’ve seen in at least 75 years, and to the most civil unrest we’ve seen maybe ever but certainly in the last 50 years. Each of these challenges alone have been hard and breathtaking in scope, but all of them have come at the same time and keep reverberating across our city, making it sometimes feel easier to focus on their immediate impacts and instead of the ways in which they stem from systemic issues that simmer beneath the surface of our city, of our society. Issues like generational poverty, disinvestment, and yes, racism.

When left untreated, these systemic issues become malignant growths that manifest themselves in violence and the lack of opportunity. These growths then spread to our most vulnerable communities and jeopardize the health, wellbeing and access to opportunity for far too many of our residents. This means that whatever path we create to recover from the immediate challenges our city faces, must also reckon with and address the historic wounds that have been aggravated and brought to full relief over the course of this long, difficult last year. Adam’s death is a forceful reminder that we cannot delay this effort any longer.

As the investigation into the police shooting that took Adam’s life continues, I urge everyone, reserve judgment until the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, that’s COPA, has done its work. And I’m urging COPA to do that work thoroughly, transparently and with all deliberate speed.

In the meantime, we must also take a moment to acknowledge the reasons why Adam’s death has provoked such an outcry in communities across our city. Again, we live in a city that is traumatized by a long history of police violence and misconduct. So while we don’t have enough information to be the judge and jury of this particular situation, it is certainly understandable why so many of our residents are feeling an all too familiar surge of outrage and pain. And it’s even clearer that trust between our communities and law enforcement is far from healed and remains badly broken. This lack of trust makes it even more difficult for many of us to wait and hear all the facts before making up our mind in tragedies about this. But again, I urge, I urge each resident who cares and loves this city, let’s wait until we hear all the facts.

Right now, residents all over the country are reckoning with the ongoing Derek Chauvin trial and the death of 20-year-old Daunte Wright in Minnesota this past Sunday, also at the hands of police. All of which have only heightened feelings of fear, pain and anger, and come as a blow that threatens to slow our progress in our mission to create an environment where all residents feel safe and protected in the communities that they call home.

We cannot rest, and I will not rest, until all of our communities feel and experience real safety and protection and we feel that transparency is ensured in each of these situations. We must do more. I know that. We all know that.

We have to do more starting with reforming the Chicago Police Department’s policies and particularly, the foot pursuit policy. I said this in August of 2018, and here we are now in 2021, foot pursuits put everyone involved at risk, the officers, the person being pursued and bystanders. We have to do better. I’ve charged the superintendent with bringing to me a policy that recognizes how dangerous this is. We can’t afford to lose more lives.

As Mayor, I know that we must do more to help children like Adam before they end up in encounters like this one. I refuse to stand idly by and allow our residents’ fates to be preordained simply by where they live or the circumstances into which they’re born. We have to do more to make sure that every resident has a shot at fulfilling their God-given potential. And to accomplish this mission, it is critical to provide social supports to all of our residents, especially our young people who are particularly vulnerable to violence. This is, again, a truth not up to debate. We’ve got to do more.

That’s why my time as Mayor, we have exponentially increased our investments and outreach to our young people from pre-K through college. We have taken a whole of government approach to providing a loving support around our children. And while we’ve been doing that, we also have been focused on achieving making sure that they can achieve their dreams and most importantly, be off the streets. I know this from my own personal experience in my family, and I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating, sometimes the streets are every bit as seductive and powerful as a narcotic. Families do everything that they can, moms, dad, grandparents, to love and support their children, but they’re fighting against powerful, powerful forces. We’ve got to give them the tools that they need to be able to support and keep their children from harm. We’ve got to do more as a city to make that happen.

There are a number of forces that met up at 2:30 in the morning on March 29th in an alley, and simply put, we failed at them. We cannot afford to fail one more young person in our city. We must do everything we can also to eliminate the scourge of firearms from our city. Every year, the Chicago Police Department recovers more guns than New York and L.A. combined, not because we have a better strategy, not because we pay more attention, but because we have too many damn guns on our streets. We’ve got to close the loopholes and shut down opportunities for folks in other streets to bring these lethal deadly force into our communities.

I’ve spoken, and I will continue to speak with the Biden administration about what the federal government must do now in this moment to close loopholes, to provide background checks and to step up and do the things that the federal government is uniquely qualified to do. Similarly, I’ve spoken with the U.S. Attorney about the same issues. We have to do more. We are simply a [inaudible 00:12:23] illegal guns flowing over our borders from neighboring cities and states, and we cannot fight this fight without federal partnership, meaningful work that must be done now, and we have an opportunity to make that happen.

We must hold those who put the guns in the hands of our children or harm them with guns, accountable for their actions. In far too many of our communities, many of our young people are witness to or fall victim to violence and are left traumatized. I have sat in too many circles watching these young people who are beautiful and magnificent but-

… These young people who are beautiful and magnificent, but traumatized by the violence that they experience every day. Every day as residents of our city. We’ve got to do things differently to change around their fortunes. We pew it to them to do better. This last weekend, we had a convening of the Mayor’s Youth Commission, and there was a young man from Little Village who spoke beautifully, eloquently and talked about the face that his whole life, his whole life he’s walked by murals in his neighborhood with a growing list of names of people who have been felled by gun violence. We can’t have that be what our young people experience in our city. It will take all of us to turn this around.

Yes, I am committed. My entire administration is committed. But I also know that real power also comes from people in communities. And we have to be united in saying, and using this opportunity of Adam’s death as an opportunity to change our thinking. What we’re doing, how we’re making investments, how we’re intervening to do better for our young people who are here so that they can walk a life in their streets, in their neighborhoods without fear, without feeling like they are prey. Wherever the violence comes from. Wherever it comes from. So let me stop there. And I’d like to introduce the incredible people who were standing with me. Karina Ayala-Bermejo, who’s the leader of Instituto del Progreso and an incredible fearless champion. Rick Estrada, the CEO of Metropolitan Family Services. And Raul Raymundo of The Resurrection Project. If you haven’t seen the statement that they put out, I commend it to you, it was beautiful, it was powerful, painful, but words that needed to be said. Karina.

Karina Ayala-Bermejo: (15:42)
My name is Karina, and I am the president and CEO of Instituto del Progreso Latino. Our mission is to ensure that Latinos, that immigrants reach their fullest potential. And we do that through education, training and employment. But today I come before you as a Latina, as a mother of three teenagers of Latino children, with the pain in my heart and with a passion to encounter the very issues that our community continues to face. And what I ask is that when we see this video, that will be very difficult and very painful, that we embrace our children, that we embrace our community, that we feel the pain that Adam Toledo’s family is feeling and have felt in this nightmare.

And that allow space for the family to process, to heal. I call for peace. I call for justice. But I also call for non-violence. As a mother of three teenagers, whose worst nightmare is to get a call like this. I ask you to wrap your love around the Toledo family. I ask us to do more. I ask us to recommit to all of what is the root causes of where we are today. Specifically, I ask to create a foundation that supports success and life and not death. Let us commit to changes today in Adam Toledo’s name. Let us commit to invest in our communities, to invest in our youth, to invest in our families, to invest in a future that is bright for everyone.

The loss of any child is absolutely painful and is a trauma that is reopened for any family who’s lost a child. So I send this peaceful message of love to all who have lost children and those in gun violence. Today, we grieve as a city together. We grieve for the family. And recommit to what we know is a necessary action that involves all community members, all residents, and all of us as parents and all of us as leaders. We wear two hats. And now we ask you to recommit to that opportunity to really invest in youth, invest in education, invest in peace.

[Spanish 00:18:38] I will be passing the microphone to Rich Estrada.

Rick Estrada: (21:05)
First and foremost, I want to offer my condolences to the Toledo family. And thank my colleagues here today, and the mayor for their message of peace and hope and reconciliation in this city. The murder and killing in Minnesota, the violence in Georgia, Texas, across the country, certainly here in Chicago, the spikes in violence that we’ve seen over the last 14 months, since the pandemic, but really that we’ve been seeing here since 1919 or so. It hasn’t changed a whole lot. My name is Rick Estrada and I’m president of Metropolitan Family Services. And that matters a little bit, but what matters most I think is I was raised five blocks from the place where Adam Toledo was killed. So I’m a product of Little Village, a working class, Mexican-American neighborhood, full of vibrant immigrants. And a 13-year-old boys life was taken and his future was taken from him.

And that’s, I think, the story that we all have to keep in our mind. It’s a 13-year-old boy whose life was taken and that we are all each and every one of us complicit in our inability to give this boy the future and his family the future that this young man, young boy deserved. I join my colleagues here today, again, to call for peace. Certainly, we need to give this family, Mrs. Toledo, specifically, his siblings, his father, the time to grieve. Absolutely, we need to call for justice. But in our community, we have about nine days, novenas, where we need to grieve, right? We need to allow this family to grieve. Again, on behalf of my colleagues at Metropolitan Family Services, and all across, this family has been embraced by Pastor Matt DeMateo, and pastors in Little Village, and [inaudible 00:23:14] and in Enlace in Little Village.

And we’re going to do more of that because this family absolutely needs it. So again, our message today is one, absolutely, we need to call for justice. But right now at the time to allow this family to heal and grieve, and there’ll be a future time.

[Spanish 00:23:35] Metropolitan Family Services. [Spanish 00:23:42]. Again, thank you again for your time. I’m going to introduce Raul Raymundo, who is the founder and executive director of The Resurrection Project. Raul.

Raul Raymundo: (25:06)
Thank you, Rick. Our mission is to put our faith and values into practice to create healthier communities. And that is what we need now across this city. I want to echo my colleagues condolences and prayers to the family, the Toledo family, and allow them to grieve in peace. I know that what is coming is going to have tremendous emotions, anxiety. I have not seen the video, but from what I’ve heard and what the mayor described this morning, we can all anticipate high emotions. Emotions of anxiety, emotions of anger, emotions of despair and so forth. But what I’m here is to ask my colleagues across the city, not just in Little Village, that we exercise our first…

City, not just a Little Village, that we exercise our first amendment rights, protests in peace, and nonviolence. Violence is not going to resolve violence. I’m here also because my parents live in Little Village, have been living there for over 30 years. And so this is not an issue of Little Village alone. We’ve seen these tragedies occur again and again, and it is time for all of us to come together to address the systemic issues that is causing these tragedies. I too echo my colleague’s call for investment, in rooting out the root causes of these issues. Investment from all of us. I ask all of us to look at ourselves in the mirror and what are we going to do differently to make things better?

The business community, the philanthropic community, the public sector, us in the community sector have got to come together. And my colleagues in the media, I challenge you as well to communicate better, what are the root causes of this? Sometimes negative news travels fast, but positive news doesn’t. There are plenty of positive stories coming out of our communities that we need to highlight. We need role models in our community to make sure that we address the root causes of our community. And so I ask, again, that after we witness and see this video, that we stay calm, that we act peacefully, and that we roll up our sleeves and start working on addressing the root causes that caused this tragedy and too many across the city and across the country, as we’ve heard already from my colleagues.

[foreign language 00:27:59].

Thank you. And I’m going to ask now the Mayor to come up and answer questions.

I should also neglected to indicate that our acting corporation counsel, Celia Mesa, has been working with counsel for the Toledo family to make sure that they have the supports that they need is also with us this afternoon. Happy to take any questions. Yeah, we’ll have a microphone.

Speaker 1: (30:31)
Can you give us some sense? You said you watched the video, you talked a little bit about it, but can you just give us a sense of how difficult it was for you to watch this?

It was excruciating. There are several videos that start at the beginning of the episode. But watching the body cam footage, which shows young Adam, after he’s shot. It’s extremely difficult. And I would just say, and I’ve said this to a number of people on my staff or cabinet, as a mom, this is not something you want children to see.

Speaker 1: (31:25)
I just want to follow up and then I’ll pass it to my colleagues. You talked about needing to do more. What more could the city have done in this case to prevent this tragedy?

Well, I don’t want to presume that I have an answer right now. I think we need to do more listening to community members from Little Village and other neighborhoods across the city. But our young people who have been living with a lot of trauma for a long time. I go back to an event that happened here in connection with the March For our Lives, the young people who organize themselves following the mass shooting at the high school in Florida. There was a similar event that was held here in Chicago. And young person after young person took the stage and talked about their own experience with gun violence, the experience with people in their family. There’s a lot of trauma that our young people have been living with for a long time. And I think it’s been exacerbated through the pandemic where they feel isolated, unattached.

And I know from my own experience that those are the breeding grounds for young people who are vulnerable to be swept up by those who have a different agenda, different plan, but nothing good for them. I think we have to think about the additional ways in which we can provide on the ground supports to community organizations that are working with young people. We’ve obviously put a lot of our resources into CPS, through social workers and so forth. But I think this moment where a family did everything that they could, and still, this happened. So we have to think about strategically what additional resources that we need to be providing in partnership with organizations on the ground, some of which are represented here. There’s not going to be a one size fits all fix, but we’re also listening to our youth commissioners who are themselves living this life and representing their peers.

But this is an important moment for us to take stock, to listen, and then reinvest in strategic ways that are going to really improve the quality of young people’s lives. What we hear all the time is there’s not enough space for them to be young, to be safe. What we hear is they’re out of school. Life is everybody is as important as their school life. And a lot of that has been stripped away from them in the course of this pandemic. Of course that’s coming back gradually, but I think we need to accelerate our efforts. We’ve put historic amounts of resources in the two budgets that have come during my tenure, but clearly more needs to be done, and with a lot more speed. Go ahead, Marianne.

Thank you. Mayor, can you tell us, did Adam Toledo shoot at the police? And do you think that the police should have been chasing him in the first place?

Look, I don’t want to get into the real substance of this, because the independent investigation is going on, but I’ve seen no evidence whatsoever that Adam Toledo shot at the police.

Can you tell us why is a slowed down version of the video also being offered? What’s the reasoning behind that? Is it because it’s just so fast happening, it’s better to explain it that way?

I think a couple of things. One, it was offered to and the family saw that, and they agreed that it would be helpful to the public to be able to see that version. I will tell you, for example, with the body camera video of the officer who ends up firing the fatal shot, he’s running through an alley. The raw video footage is extraordinarily jumpy. It’s really hard to see anything. So I think, and the family agrees, and we wouldn’t be doing this without their consent, that providing a slowed down, frame-by-frame opportunity to see what happened is going to be helpful to members of the public.

You did talk about think foremost about Adam Toledo. There are going to be police officers who will hear that and say, “What about the officer who was chasing a suspect who that officer believes is being threatened by someone with a gun?” No one has addressed the impact of the shooting on that officer, his family, and really all officers.

When you see, and I urge you, if you watch it, watch all the footage, you’re going to see that officer spring into action to try to revive Adam, to call for medical assistance. I don’t know him. I don’t even know anything, very little about him, but I’ve had experience of investigating a number of police involved shootings in my earlier career. And I know that most officers go through their whole career and they never fire their weapon in the line of duty. I also know that every time that it’s happened, it’s extraordinarily traumatizing for them. I don’t want to get into the individual circumstances of this particular officer, but I know that no officer that I’ve ever been around who’s fired their firearm in the line of duty, whether it’s hit someone or not, is traumatized by that experience. And there are a lot of people who would probably be angry hearing me say that, but that is the facts. And that is my experience in investigating at least 100 shootings as an investigator, and then having reviewed a number of police involved shootings while I was on the police board.

I also want to say this about families of officers, and particularly their children. We don’t hear and talk a lot about that, but I’m mindful of the fact that these are hard experiences for them as well. That’s why I say, I think people will have a range of emotions when they see these videos. That’s understandable. But I think as a person of faith, I think we all have to put ourselves in the shoes of everyone and walk in those shoes, if we can. This is a hard thing, it’s complicated. Police involved shootings always evoke a significant amount of emotion, as well they should. But as everyone here has sat and I will repeat, I hope that people express themselves peacefully.

Ruan: (38:50)
Hi, Mayor. Ruan from Telemundo. I don’t know if Ms. Cecilia Mes or somebody else know about this question. After viewing the video, do you know how Adam mother or the families are doing, what was their reaction?

Well-

Ruan: (39:02)
… Or the families are doing? What was their reaction?

Well, I don’t think it’s appropriate for us to talk about how they’re doing. That’s for them. And, as you know, the family has consistently asked for privacy and for space. And we’re going to respect that.

Catala: (39:19)
Thank you. Catala from Telemundo Chicago. Mayor Lightfoot, you mentioned that the city of Chicago has given resources to the family. Would you be able to share some of the assistance that they have been given?

Well, what I said is that a number of community organizations in Little Village, in [inaudible 00:39:42], New Life Covenant Church, and others have provided a significant amount of resources to the family. Some of those organizations that are on the ground are delegate agencies of the city, and so are provided with city resources to do the work that they do on a day in and day out basis. But that community itself, I cannot overstate it, they have really stepped up, from providing food, from providing grief counseling, from victim services, helping with the funeral. There was a GoFundMe page that was set up for the family. And I think, when I heard last, it was over $50,000 to help defray some of the cost of the funeral and other things. So, that community really has rallied.

We’re here to provide any backstops. When I initially started to engage with folks in the community, there was a concern about whether they were going to be able to pay for the funeral. That concern went away quickly, but we would have stepped in. But really the community gets the credit for what they’ve done to wrap their arms around the Toledo family.

Catala: (40:46)
Another question I have, we’ve seen a lot of the businesses in the Mag Mile that are boarding up today. Has the city given any guidance to the businesses in the Mag Mile and also to businesses and residents of La Villita prior to the release of the video?

So, we have been preparing for the Chauvin trial for months now. And, as part of those preparations, we have been in regular contact with businesses all across the city, not just in the downtown area, but also in the neighborhoods. And, of course, there are a number of businesses in Little Village as well. We are in regular contact with the various chambers of commerce also across the city. My team held a security briefing last night with hundreds of business stakeholders across the city. We are activating our neighborhood protection plan, which we honed through the course of last summer and the fall. So, we have been communicating, and I think in some ways over communicating, but you can’t over-communicate in these circumstances because we were preparing for the Chauvin trial and that jury verdict.

It happens now that these circumstances are sitting next to each other. So, those preparations have already been activated. I’d rather be better prepared than not. And so, my team has been reaching out really across the city to a range of different stakeholders from the faith community, community organizations, activists, and businesses. We want to prepare people for the release of these videos, but also to assure folks that we are ready and prepared any event that something happens. But it’s got to be communications that flow both ways. So, we’re urging people, if you see something to say something. The last thing we want to do is, in this moment where think the city is very cognizant of the impending release of these videos, which I understand is going to be at 2:30 today, that we are prepared and that the city individuals, residents, businesses are also prepared.

Speaker 2: (43:06)
Mayor.

Yeah.

Speaker 2: (43:07)
To be clear, prosecutors said last week, told the judge in court that Adam Toledo had a gun in his hand. I understand the video will be released in an hour and a half, but can you confirm that? Is that accurate?

You’ll be able to see what the video shows. It’s not for me to confirm that. I’m very aware of what was said at the bond hearing for Mr. Roman. I believe that, as articulated, the comments of the state’s attorney were correct. But it’s not for me to confirm or deny anything about this. There’s an ongoing investigation. And I want to honor that both by culpa and the state’s attorney. Let’s go back here first, if you don’t mind, Marianne.

Speaker 3: (43:53)
Natalia with Innovation. Any plans to release the name of the officers involved in this shooting and their backgrounds?

The names will eventually be released, but it is standard protocol in these circumstances that we let the investigation play itself out before the names are released.

Speaker 4: (44:09)
All right. We’ll do the last one from here.

From The Daily Line, they were asking me to ask you, could you share your thoughts about Alderman Waguespack’s ordinance coming up in committee tomorrow that would require the city to publish a database of closed police misconduct complaints? Is that something you’ll support?

No.

Why?

As I understand the ordinance, it would require the city to digitize decades worth of old CR files of officers who are no longer on the force, may have passed away at this time. And the expense, because we looked at what would make sense, would be significant. And I’m not sure what we gain with the public aids to go back to the 1970s to produce CR files. I’m more than happy to work with the alderman and the chairman of the Public Safety Committee to look at augmenting what’s already been produced. And there’s a significant amount of CR files that are already out there. But I do not support that ordinance as currently proposed, but happy to work with Alderman Waguespack and Chairman Taliaferro and other members of the Public Safety Committee to get to a place that makes sense, that’s transparent. But going back 30 years to paper files and the expense of digitizing them, I’m not sure what the utility of that would be.

So, I think we can reach a middle ground here. We’ve already produced, I think, ten plus years of CR files in connection with a couple of different lawsuits. So, there’s a robust amount of information that’s already out there in the public view that’s accessible on a number of different channels. But, in this time, I think it’s challenging when we’re talking about literally spending tens of millions of dollars. And it’ll take a long time with the ordinance as written. So, I’ve reached out to Chairman Waguespack, for whom I have a tremendous amount of respect. And I’m hoping that we can work out something that it serves a purpose, which is important, of transparency, but does it in a way that makes sense.

Speaker 4: (46:29)
All right. Thank you, mayor. Thank you, everyone.

Thank you.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Press Conference Transcript April 15: Police Shooting of 13-Year-Old Adam Toledo

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