No charges will be filed against the Chicago police officers who chased and fatally shot 13-year-old Adam Toledo and 22-year-old Anthony Alvarez within days of each other last year, prompting sharp criticism of how the department handles foot pursuits, a prosecutor announced on Tuesday.
The Cook county state’s attorney, Kim Foxx, said there was insufficient evidence to charge the officers in the deaths, which were captured on video that showed both suspects appeared to have handguns before the shootings.
The public release of the videos in April 2021 renewed calls for reform of the Chicago police department, which for decades has had a reputation for brutality, misconduct and racism.
In both Chicago shootings, officers chased suspects on foot – a highly unpredictable situation that critics, including the US Department of Justice, have said is dangerous for both officers and suspects and leads to too many unnecessary shootings.
The deaths led to protests and calls for Chicago to adopt clear guidelines for officers on pursuits, though a policy still has not been finalized.
In February, Alvarez’s family sued the city of Chicago, saying it was partly responsible for his death because of the lack of a foot pursuit policy.
Foxx too was critical on Tuesday of the officers in the shooting death of Alvarez, saying they created the situation that put them in danger.
The prosecutor said she met with families of both Toledo and Alvarez earlier on Tuesday and both were heartbroken.
Foxx said the officers in both cases, Evan Solano who killed Alvarez and Eric Stillman who killed Toledo, demonstrated they feared for their lives at the moment they fired.
But she added she has “deep concerns” about the Chicago police department’s foot pursuit policy in both cases. The city has said it was reviewing the policy.
After the shootings last year, Chicago’s mayor, Lori Lightfoot, demanded the police department come up with a clear foot pursuit policy – something that has been discussed for years but has not happened. Chicago police now say they are finalizing a policy, though one still is not in place.
