Chicago City Wire

Responding to the deadly officer-involved shooting that killed 13-year-old Adam Toledo, Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D-Chicago) has asked the public not to cast judgment about Toledo's fate. 

According to accounts of what happened, police responded to reports of gunfire on South Sawyer Avenue when Toledo and Ruben Roman, Jr. reportedly took off. Roman, Jr. was taken into custody and charged with resisting arrest. 

Toledo, however, allegedly refused to comply with police and continued to run. He eventually turned to face the officers who were chasing him with a gun allegedly visible in his right hand. Lightfoot addressed the public about the ordeal in a press conference a week after the shooting.

"Fumbling with her sheets while standing at the rostrum, Lightfoot then dove deadline into police foot chases, vowed to 'get to the bottom' of how Toledo came into possession of a firearm, and emphasized the need for 'investment' in the social safety net," Florian Sohnke, founder of the Chicago Contrarian, wrote in the April 12 blog. 

Sohnke noted Lightfoot never defended the officer, but also a in a highly unusual move, didn't condemn police actions either, but stood behind the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) which called police body cam footage of the ordeal "troubling."

A video released by police on April 15 shows Toledo with his hands up just before being shot.