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Demonstrators chanted "Hands up, don't shoot!" and "No justice,
no peace!" while hoisting signs with messages such as "Justice
for Adam Toledo" and "Stop Racist Police Terror!" in a march
that remained peaceful as night fell.
The demonstrators observed a moment of silence and expressed
solidarity with the boy's relatives, who had implored protesters
to remain peaceful. The rally began in Logan Square Park, about
five miles (8 km) north of where the shooting occurred.
The nine-minute video, recorded by Eric Stillman's body camera,
shows showed the 34-year-old officer chasing and shooting Toledo
on March 29 at 2:30 a.m. in Little Village, a working-class
neighborhood on the city's West Side with a large population of
Mexican Americans.
Toledo appeared to be holding a handgun when he complied with
Stillman's order for him to stop. Toledo then dropped the weapon
and raised his hands immediately before Stillman opened fire,
the video showed.
The release of the video came as tensions are running high in
Chicago and across the country over the issues of policing and
racial justice.
In the latest police-involved shootings of people of color, an
officer in a Minneapolis suburb shot and killed a Black man
during a traffic stop, and now faces a second-degree
manslaughter charge. On Thursday, the defense rested its case in
the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis officer
charged with murder in the death of George Floyd, whose death
last year ignited a nationwide wave of protests.
The Chicago Police Department said in a statement it was closely
monitoring events across the country and deployed additional
resources throughout the city. The department said it has also
canceled days off for police officers in several units and
teams.
Businesses throughout the city boarded up windows over the past
week in anticipation of possible riots and looting after the
release of the video. The city saw widespread looting and
rioting in the days and weeks following Floyd's death last May.
Stillman, a five-year veteran of the force, is on administrative
desk duty pending an investigation into the incident. He
attorney was unavailable for comment on Friday.
John Catanzara, president of the Chicago Fraternal Order of
Police union, told CNN on Thursday that Stillman had only
eight-tenths of a second to make the decision whether to shoot
and his actions were justified.
"That officer's actions were actually heroic," he said.
A smaller protest blocked traffic on Thursday when largely
peaceful demonstrators were met by helmeted officers on foot,
social media images showed.
(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Chicago; Additional reporting
by Daniel Trota in Vista, California; Editing by Cynthia
Osterman and Daniel Wallis)
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