(CNN)Illinois prosecutors will not file charges against the Chicago police officers who fatally shot Adam Toledo and Anthony Alvarez on separate occasions in 2021, Cook County Prosecutor Kim Foxx announced Tuesday.
On March 29, 2021, 13-year-old Toledo was fatally shot by officers at the end of a foot chase. Police said body camera footage shows Toledo holding a gun in his right hand, but it disappears from view as he turns to the officer and begins to raise his hands as he is shot. A gun was later found behind a fence a few meters from where Toledo was killed.
Foxx said her office would not press charges in the Toledo case during a news conference. The case file was also sent to the Illinois State Attorney for Appeals, whose office agreed that no charges were warranted, she added.
Attorneys Adeena Weiss Ortiz and Joel Hirschhorn, representing Adam Toledo’s family, said she and the family are “deeply disappointed.”
“Despite this decision, we will continue to fight for Adam and have filed our civil action for damages,” the press release said. “Officer (Eric) Stillman’s use of deadly force was excessive and posed a threat to the safety of Adam and others.
Foxx noted that while Stillman can be determined to have violated the Chicago Police Department’s foot tracing guidelines, a decision on criminal charges made by the Cook County State Attorney’s Office “must be rooted in the calculus of whether officer Stillman’s perception.” whether he was in danger of imminent harm leading him to fatally shoot Adam Toledo was reasonable given the totality of the circumstances of the incident.
Chicago police had responded almost immediately to a notification from ShotSpotter, a gunshot detection system that alerts officers to gunshots. Responding officers were informed that eight shots had been fired, according to police radio traffic released by the authorities, and were met by Toledo, who fled down an alley before they ran after him.
Alvarez, 22, was fatally shot by officer Evan Solano on March 31, 2021 — 10 miles from where Toledo was killed — after running from police. Chicago police say he was armed during the case, and surveillance footage shows him dropping what appears to be a gun on the grass nearby when he was shot by an officer.
“After a thorough review, the Office has concluded that there is insufficient evidence in this case to support a criminal charge against Police Officer Evan Solano,” Foxx said.
The Illinois Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor also reviewed the case and agreed with the decision, according to Foxx.
“As in the Toledo case, an officer has the right to use force that is likely to cause death or serious personal injury if he reasonably believes that such force is necessary to result in death or serious personal injury to himself or another person prevent it,” she said.
Body camera footage released last year by Chicago’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) shows responding officers pursuing Alvarez by car and then on foot in a residential neighborhood in northwest Chicago on March 31, 2021.
Police said at the time they tried to stop and speak to Alvarez, who was “a person familiar to officers,” according to COPA. Police didn’t say at the time if Alvarez was suspected of a crime or what they wanted to talk to him about.
In the footage, an officer can be heard saying, “Drop the gun!” twice. Less than a second later he shoots five times. The shooting is visible on both the officer’s body camera video and a nearby home CCTV camera. “Why are you shooting me?” Alvarez screams from the floor. Alvarez was later pronounced dead from multiple gunshot wounds.
Body camera footage showed two officers who later admitted a handgun was on the lawn near Alvarez.
A call to the attorneys representing the Alvarez family was not immediately answered Tuesday.
CNN’s Brad Parks contributed to this report.
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