Politics

Lawsuit Filed by Family of Adam Toledo Set for Trial, 5 Years After 13-Year-Old Was Killed

A Cook County jury is set to decide whether the Chicago Police Department is liable for the death of Adam Toledo, the 13-year-old who was shot and killed by an officer after a brief foot chase in March 2021, records show.

The trial is set to start April 6, just days after the fifth anniversary of Adam’s death, which spurred outrage-fueled demonstrations and renewed calls for police reform.

Representatives of the city’s Department of Law declined to comment on the upcoming trial, which could be averted if officials negotiate a last-minute settlement in the high-profile case, preventing a trial that could lead to a multimillion-dollar jury verdict.

The fifth anniversary of Adam’s death is a “solemn moment for his family, who continue to carry the unimaginable weight of his loss every single day,” said Adeena Weiss, the lead lawyer for Elizabeth and Marco Toledo, his parents.

“They have waited five years for the opportunity to present the full facts before a jury, and not narratives,” Weiss said. “This case has always been about more than one moment — it is about ensuring that the truth is heard, that the system works as it should, and that a young boy’s life is not reduced to a headline.”

While declining to discuss the specific evidence they intend to present to a jury, Weiss said the Chicago Police Department was responsible for the “avoidable intentional death of a child.”

The lawsuit was originally scheduled to go to trial in November 2024, but has been delayed repeatedly.

In September 2024, a spokesperson for Chicago Corporation Counsel Mary Richardson Lowry told WTTW News city lawyers “attempted in good faith to reach a resolution with the parties through mediation but we were ultimately unable to reach a mutually agreeable settlement.”

In all, taxpayers paid two law firms — Johnson & Bell and Nathan & Kamionski — $2 million between June 2022 and December 2025, according to documents obtained by WTTW News through the Freedom of Information Act.

The trial will refocus attention on the events of the early morning of March 29, 2021, which began when the city’s gunshot detection system detected eight shots near 24th Street and Sawyer Avenue in Little Village.

Officer Eric Stillman and his partner responded to the alert at 2:36 a.m., and encountered Adam and Ruben Roman, 21.

Stillman detained Roman, and then chased Adam down a nearby alley. Adam was carrying a firearm in his right hand, but began dropping it and put his arms in the air as he turned to face Stillman, alongside a fence in the alley. Stillman fired one shot at the boy, striking him in the chest, according to video captured by the officer’s body-worn camera.

Roman was acquitted in November 2022 on charges he fired at parked cars alongside Adam.

Lawyers for the Toledo family told WTTW News in September 2024 that they planned to argue that CPD was negligent in hiring Stillman in 2015, after the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs determined that he suffered from a stress disability as a result of his service in the military before he became a Chicago police officer.

Lawyers for the city failed to convince Judge Kathy M. Flanagan to prohibit those arguments from being presented to the jury.

The board of the Policemen’s Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago determined that Stillman was unable to work as a police officer because of post-traumatic stress disorder triggered by the March 29, 2021, shooting that killed Adam.

That determination entitled Stillman to be paid 50% of his salary, the board determined.

After Stillman appealed the decision, a Cook County judge ruled Stillman was entitled to 75% of his salary, determining that the pension board improperly lowered his benefit because of the diagnosis by military officials.

Lawyers for the Toledo family objected to Stillman’s effort to increase his disability payment, records show. Flanagan ruled that the jury cannot be told about that legal fight.

Chicago police officers with as much experience as Stillman typically earn more than $100,000 annually.

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx declined to file criminal charges against Stillman in connection with the death of Adam, who never pointed the gun at the officer. Foxx said the entire series of events occurred “within one second.”

Stillman’s belief that he was in danger of imminent harm was reasonable “given the totality of the circumstances surrounding the incident,” Foxx determined.

Disciplinary Process 

After a separate investigation, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability urged that Stillman be fired, determining he used excessive force against the 13-year-old. In addition, Stillman’s actions were inconsistent with departmental rules then in effect governing foot chases and he failed to activate his body-worn camera in time to capture the entire incident.

Former Chicago Police Supt. David Brown disagreed with the recommendation from the city’s lead agency charged with investigating police misconduct, known as COPA. Instead, Brown said Stillman should face a five-day suspension for not properly activating his body-worn camera.

Stillman has not returned to active duty with the CPD since the shooting.

Since Brown and former COPA Chief Administrator Andrea Kersten could not reach an agreement on what discipline Stillman should face, it fell to one member of the Chicago Police Board to decide whether to accept Brown’s determination or send the matter to the full board for consideration.

Ghian Foreman, who was then the president of the Police Board, declined in October 2022 to affirm Brown’s decision, putting Stillman’s fate in the hands of the nine-member board made up of mayoral appointees confirmed by the Chicago City Council. Foreman is no longer a member of the board.

But days before the board was to begin considering whether Stillman should be fired in February, a Cook County judge halted the hearing amid a dispute between the city and the city’s largest police union. Those proceedings have yet to resume, leaving Stillman’s case in limbo.

Stillman’s fate is in the hands of the Illinois Supreme Court, which will decide whether Chicago police officers accused of serious misconduct have the right to ask an arbitrator — and not the Chicago Police Board — to decide their punishment, but those proceedings must take place in public.

Police union President John Catanzara has fiercely defended Stillman, saying the shooting was “100% justified” and called Stillman “actually heroic.”

Adam’s death forced CPD to accelerate long-stalled efforts to develop a policy governing when officers can chase those suspected of committing crimes. But it would not be until June 2022 that police brass implemented CPD’s first-ever foot chase policy and promised it would protect the safety of officers, the public and those being pursued.

A probe by the U.S. Department of Justice completed in 2017 found that too many police chases in the city were unnecessary or ended with unjustified shootings. That investigation led to the 2019 federal court order that requires CPD to change the way it trains, supervises and disciplines officers, known as the consent decree.

That agreement required CPD to craft and implement a policy telling officers when they are allowed to give chase, a demand that went unfulfilled until after Adam was killed.

The outrage around the 13-year-old’s death was compounded by the fatal police shooting two days later of 22-year-old Anthony Alvarez, which also took place after a foot chase.

A trial date has yet to be set for the lawsuit filed by Alvarez’s family. U.S. District Court Judge Steven Seeger allowed claims that the officer who shot and killed Alvarez used excessive force against him to proceed, along with claims that his death was the result of the city’s lack of a policy governing foot chases, records show.

Adam’s death also served to amplify criticism that the city’s gunshot detection system, ShotSpotter, contributed to the overpolicing of Black and Latino neighborhoods without making residents any safer.

Mayor Brandon Johnson terminated the city’s contract with ShotSpotter, and the city stopped using the system in September 2024.

During the 2023 mayoral campaign, Johnson said there was “clear evidence (ShotSpotter) is unreliable and overly susceptible to human error” and blamed the system for Adam’s death.

During his inaugural address, Johnson promised to take a new approach to public safety in Chicago and mourned Adam’s death by mentioning the pain his parents are suffering, while paying tribute to Officer Areanah Preston, who was slain while in uniform just weeks before Johnson took office. Four teens have been charged in connection with her shooting death.

“The tears of Adam Toledo’s parents are made of the same sorrow as those of Officer Preston’s parents,” Johnson said.

Note: This story has been updated to reflect the Chicago Department of Law's updated accounting of the cost for private lawyers to defend this lawsuit.

Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]

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