Chicago‘s newly appointed top cop is calling for the firing of an officer who shot dead an unarmed Latino American boy in the city’s Little Village section two years ago – but managed to escape charges due to insufficient evidence.
Graphic body camera video showed how Officer Eric Stillman chased down 13-year-old Adam Toledo into an alley before firing a single shot into the boy’s chest on March 29, 2021.
The video sparked protests almost overnight, after it revealed Toledo had dropped a handgun he had been carrying shortly before Stillman fired the fatal shot, and was raising his hands in surrender.
The city’s DA’s office would then agonize over whether to hit Stillman with a disciplinary hearing for the better part of year, before coming to the conclusion that there was insufficient evidence to charge the officer.
At the time, the department’s superintendent – the only official with the power to sign off on such a hearing – elected to only hit Tillman with a five-day suspension. More than a year later, his successor is saying that decision should be reversed.
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Eric Stillman, 36, shot dead an unarmed Latino American boy in the city’s Little Village section two years ago – but managed to escape charges due to insufficient evidence
Adam Toledo, 13, passed away after sustaining the single gunshot wound on March 29, 2021., despite dropping a gun and raising his hands in surrender
‘Officer Stillman’s use of deadly force was not necessary to prevent death or great bodily harm from an imminent threat posed to Officer Stillman,’ CP Superintendent Eric Carter wrote in charges filed with the city’s police board Monday.
Additionally, Carter – who succeeded Superintendent David Brown just this past month – accused Stillman, 36, of failing to use proper de-escalation techniques to ‘prevent the use of deadly force as a last resort.’
The city’s police board is now to hold hearings on Stillman’s potential termination beginning in May.
In the interim, Stillman – a seven-year veteran who had never used deadly force prior to the shooting – will remain on active duty, as he has for most of the past two years.
In the recommendation, Carter stated that the officer violated several department policies including unlawful or unnecessary use of his firearm.
He added that Stillman acted ‘inconsistently’ with his training when he chased down the youngster and failed to alert the Office of Emergency Management, while also neglecting to wait for backup after being separated from his partner.
The disciplinary charges almost immediately elicited a response from Stillman’s attorneys, who slammed Toledo’s death as a ‘tragedy’ – while also thrusting blame not on the officer, but the ‘the gang violence that is epidemic on our streets.’
Following Stillman’s fatal encounter with Toledo, many theorized the teen had been involved with the notorious Latin Kings street gang, hence why he was holding a gun when he was shot.
That said, the department had yet to produce any verifiable evidence to substantiate such claims. Toledo also had no discernable criminal record – a fact that his family’s attorneys cited amid calls for Stillman to face consequences for the shooting.
Graphic body camera video showed the gruesome killing, and how the officer chased down the teen into an alley before firing a single shot into his chest on March 29, 2021
At the time, the department’s then superintendent David Brown – the only official with the power to sign off on such a hearing – elected to only hit Tillman with a five-day suspension.
More than a year later, his successor – Superintendent Eric Carter – is saying that decision should be reversed
‘The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office investigated this case and correctly concluded that the use of force by Officer Stillman was proper and within Illinois law,’ Chiagao based Tim Grace wrote of Carter’s recently filed recommendation.
‘There is no reason or justification for the City of Chicago to have sought termination on this case,’ Grace continued, before pointing the city’s current crime woes.
‘The members of the Chicago Police Department continue to work under amazingly difficult circumstances, yet still come to work each day to protect the citizens from the gun-wielding offenders who terrorize our city.’
He added: ‘The work of the men and women of the Chicago Police Department should not be ostracized but rather given the appropriate amount of appreciation that is deserved.
‘We now enter the next phase of Officer Stillman’s long journey which is to try and separate him from the Chicago Police Department.’
Full of dramatic language, the lawyer’s statement eventually concluded: ‘It is not only a sad day for the police officers, and public safety but also to all Chicagoans. We look forward to presenting our case to the Police Board.’
Previously, as the city’s spread-thin state attorney probed whether to charge the civic staffer, Grace complained how ‘very little interest’ he had seen from the general public as to Stillman’s wellbeing, claiming his client was traumatized.
‘The officer involved has served his country and his city with honor and deserves our support,’ he said shortly after the shooting – which came in a crime-ridden year hailed as one of the city’s worst in decades.
Since then, crime – especially shootings – has only worsened, with incidents up nearly 50 percent from this time last year, and nearly 100 percent from 2021.
The city’s struggles have seen its image image dwindle under Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who since taking office in late 2019, tried to defund the city’s police force before making an abrupt reverse to those plans in August of 2021, amid increasing crime and mass walkouts by the city’s peace officers.
Toledo was carrying a gun in the moments before he was shot, and bodycam footage shows him throwing it behind a fence before turning to face Stillman
The officer fired a single shot, striking Toledo in the upper chest, after yelling at him to show his hands and ‘drop it’
Stillman is seen in body camera video frantically performing CPR on Toledo after shooting him once in the chest
Amid that general unrest was a still-active Stillman, who joined the police department in 2015 and has since served as a patrol officer assigned to the Ogden District on the city’s West Side.
A month after the shooting, COPA released footage from Stillman’s bodycam, showing that Toledo was carrying a gun in the moments before he was shot, but dropped it and raised his arms before facing Stillman.
In the footage, Stillman is heard yelling: ‘Stop right f***ing now!’ Show me your f***ing hands! Drop it’. When Toledo turns, he appears to raise his hands.
A moment later, a single shot rings out and the teen collapses to the ground. Stillman is then heard radioing ‘shot fired’ as he lays Toledo flat on his back and begins frantically looking for the wound.
He is heard saying: ‘Stay with me, stay with me’.
Despite efforts to revive Toledo, as seen in the body camera video the teen died from his injury.
On Monday, his family hailed the department’s renewed attempt to charge their son’s killer.
‘Firing Eric Stillman will not bring our Adam back,’ the statement read. ‘But will take us one step closer to Justice for Adam.
‘This brave decision will send a much-needed message to the Chicago Police Department… that its officers must respect the sanctity of human life… and strictly follow CPD’s policies and training while doing their job.’
Stillman’s hearing is currently set for May 1. He will remain on duty until then.
