CHICAGO — On the first anniversary of the fatal shooting of teenager Adam Toledo by a Chicago police officer during a foot chase, his family went to the church where his funeral Mass was held and then visited his grave.
At the Mass at St. Mary Star of the Sea, Adam’s name and memory were mentioned, said Lucy Garcia, his aunt.
“We went to the Mass and then we gathered as a family, ate together, went to the cemetery with all our little ones,” Garcia said. “We took balloons, flowers.”
Toledo was killed in an alley in the Little Village neighborhood a year ago at age 13.
Since then, his family has visited his burial site often, sharing pizza, one of Adam’s favorite meals, and leaving a McDonald’s frappé at his grave, which he also loved, Garcia said.
“We take him toys, Hot Wheels, Legos,” Garcia said. “That’s what he used to play.”
After visiting the cemetery, the family gathered with community supporters in the alley where he was killed and held a news conference. White balloons were released as a community member sang Juan Gabriel’s famous ballad, “Amor Eterno” or “Eternal Love.”
“Como quisiera que tú vivieras. Que tus ojitos jamás se hubieran cerrado nunca y estar mirándolos,” the woman sang. How I wish you would live. That your little eyes would have never shut and I could be looking at them.
Adam’s mother hugged family members, crying into their shoulders as the balloons drifted into the sky. “We love you Adam!” some of the family and community members yelled.
The group gathered next to a mural, an outline of a child with its hands up and in the form of angel wings.
A Virgen de Guadalupe frame hung on the wooden fence next to the painting. On Tuesday, a blue and silver shimmery garland hung across it, and white flowers were placed on a corner of the frame.
Garcia said seeing the community come out and support them helps the family maintain strength as they continue to fight for justice. They want the officer to be held accountable, she added.
“We’re also out here because we’re not happy at all with Kim Foxx’s decision,” Garcia said.
Earlier this month, Foxx, the Cook County state’s attorney, announced that her office would not bring charges against Eric Stillman, the officer who shot Toledo. Stillman knew Toledo had been carrying a weapon that night and believed the teen was turning toward him to shoot, Foxx said. There was not evidence to prove that Stillman acted with criminal intent, Foxx said.
The community vigil was also a call for justice, said Kristian Armendariz, a community organizer with Little Village Community Council who worked with the family to organize the event.
“If you come to our neighborhood, Little Village, and kill one of our children, we’re gonna hold you accountable,” Armendariz said. “Doesn’t matter if you’re an elected official, if you’re hiding behind a badge or a fancy office desk, we’re gonna hold you accountable.”
After Toledo was shot last year, Charles Odom, chairman of The Union to End Slums, a community organization, wondered why Black and brown communities don’t come together to speak out against police killings and other injustices.
Odom called organizers from the Little Village Community Council and the two organizations started working together, along with the Peacemakers Coalition. Several members of both community groups were at Tuesday’s vigil.
The three organizations have hosted Lotería and Bingo nights and organized a Thousand Man March last May.
Odom said community members have responded well to the collaboration, and some have commented the organizations should have started working together sooner.
Allan Evans, president of the Peacemakers Coalition, said the organizations are going to do what they can to try to get justice.
“I’m 77 years old,” Evans said. “And police have been shooting my friends since I was about 13.”
Garcia said it’s been difficult explaining Adam’s death to the kids in the family, including his 4-year-old nephew.
“He’s always asking, ‘Why did Adam go bye byes? When is he coming?’” Garcia said. “Those are the questions we always have to, it hurts us to hear that. We have a lot of little ones asking the same thing over and over.”
She said she misses having Adam around, because he was always happy and if he saw someone in a bad mood he would take the time and know the right thing to say to change their mood.
Addressing some comments people have made on social media criticizing the family, Garcia said Adam’s only mistake that night was sneaking out of his home, “like many teenagers do.”
“Unfortunately our Adam never came home,” she said.
Last year, prosecutors brought criminal charges against Ruben Roman, the man who was with Toledo the night he was shot.
Roman was captured on video firing the gunshots that brought officers to the area, authorities have said. He fired off shots at the corner of 24th Street and Sawyer Avenue and fled with Toledo shortly afterward, with officers pursuing them into an alley, according to Cook County prosecutors.
Roman was arrested first, after apparently having handed the gun to Toledo. Toledo kept running, video of the shooting shows, pursued by Stillman. Roman was initially charged with gun crimes and felony child endangerment.
However, when he was formally indicted by a grand jury, child endangerment charges were not included — meaning Roman’s case is no longer tied to Toledo’s death. He is awaiting trial on gun charges.
Foxx campaigned on a promise to request that each police shooting be investigated by a special prosecutor, stating that Cook County state’s attorneys have an inherent conflict of interest because they work so closely with police. That promise did not come to pass; however, since 2019, police shootings have been assessed for charges by a unit within the state’s attorney’s office that is largely separated from the regular chain of command.
In order for a special prosecutor to investigate the circumstances of Toledo’s shooting, Cook County prosecutors would have to withdraw the office from handling the matter, or a judge would have to rule that a special prosecutor is necessary after someone formally petitions for one to be appointed.
Foxx’s office has fought the request for a special prosecutor in a police shooting at least once before. After Cook County prosecutors declined to bring charges in the 2011 police shooting of Flint Farmer, Farmer’s father petitioned a judge to appoint a special prosecutor — an effort Cook County prosecutors opposed during hearings in 2017. Ultimately, then-Presiding Judge of the Criminal Division LeRoy Martin Jr. declined to assign an outside attorney, saying that he could not find an inherent conflict of interest in Cook County prosecutors investigating police.
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