Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx has acknowledged that she had not watched the recording of a Chicago Police officer shooting 13-year-old Adam Toledo before prosecutors described the deadly encounter in open court.
At an April 10 hearing for Ruben Roman, 21, who was charged with reckless discharge of a firearm, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon by a felon and child endangerment, Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy said Toledo had a gun when he was shot by Chicago Police. Roman had been with the teen just prior to the shooting.
As recently-revealed videotape released by Mayor Lori Lightfoot has shown now-furious Windy City residents, Toledo had just dropped a gun and was unarmed at the moment he was shot.
As previously reported, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office said in a statement “an attorney who works in this office failed to fully inform himself before speaking in court.”
“Errors like that cannot happen and this has been addressed with the individual involved,” said the statement. “The video speaks for itself.”
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Foxx has since admitted that she had not seen the video herself, and her office had been given a “version of events.”
“I recognize the significant public interest, in this case, the horrific end of a life for a 13-year-old boy at the time when police engagement is under tremendous scrutiny,” Foxx told The Chicago Tribune. “And (I recognize) that our version of events at that time was the only version of events that people had, and people give great trust to that.”
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“We have taken the last week to figure out who should have flagged it, what the discrepancy was, why the discrepancy was made, and what happened along the chain to allow this to happen,” she said.
“It’s not lost on me that this does look fishy,” said Foxx. “It’s not lost on me that this has shaken confidence, it is something I personally am concerned about, have been concerned about from the beginning, and we want to make sure that we are public with what happened here and how we make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
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