Hundreds marched through the streets of Chicago on Friday to protest the police shooting of Adam Toledo, a day after the city released a graphic video of a police officer shooting and killing the 13-year-old Latino boy in an alley two weeks ago.
Demonstrators chanted "Hands up, don't shoot!" and "No justice, no peace!" while hoisting signs with messages such as "Justice for Adam Toledo" and "Stop Racist Police Terror!" in a march that remained peaceful as night fell.
The nine-minute video, recorded by Eric Stillman's body camera, showed the 34-year-old officer chasing and shooting Toledo on March 29 at 2:30 a.m. in Little Village, a working-class neighborhood on the city's West Side with a large population of Mexican Americans.
Toledo appeared to be holding a handgun when he complied with Stillman's order for him to stop. Toledo then dropped the weapon and raised his hands immediately before Stillman opened fire, the video showed.
Adam Toledo, 13, holds up his hands a split second before he was shot by police in Little Village, a neighborhood on the West Side of Chicago, Illinois, U.S., March 29, 2021, in a still image from police body camera video./Reuters
The 13-year-old is one of the many victims in a surge of shootings across the U.S.
The U.S. has seen at least 147 mass shootings in 2021, according to data from research group Gun Violence Archive (GVA), which views an incident to be a mass shooting if four or more people are shot, wounded or killed, excluding the gunman.
Though it's still around the middle of April, there have been at least 30 mass shootings in the month, according to GVA.
The latest mass shooting, where the attacker killed eight people and himself, happened on April 15 at a FedEx Corp facility in Indianapolis.
The American flag flies at half-staff over the White House to mourn the victims of the Indianapolis shooting, Washington, D.C., April 16, 2021. /CFP
"This has to end. It's a national embarrassment," said President Joe Biden at a White House news conference one day after the Indianapolis shooting.
At the news conference, Biden also said Congress should ban military-style "assault" weapons and large-capacity ammunition magazines.
The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives this year passed legislation to expand background checks for gun buyers, but it faces steep odds in the Senate as lawmakers from rural states where gun ownership is widespread wield disproportionate influence.
Democrats and Republicans in that chamber are discussing a possible compromise. Congress has yet to take up Biden's proposed assault-weapon ban, though several states have prohibitions in place.
Media reports showed that tighter gun laws are supported by most Americans, as many have suffered losses from gun violence and felt frustrated by the government's inaction.
"The time is indeed now to act but the time has been now to act for years, for decades," said Peter Read, whose daughter Mary was one of 32 people killed in a mass shooting at Virginia Tech University 14 years ago.
With about 121 firearms for every 100 residents, the United States is by far the most heavily armed society in the world, and the number of gun deaths has climbed steadily in recent years.
Toledo's death also came amid tensions across the country over the issues of policing and racial justice.
In the latest police-involved shootings of a person of color, an officer in a Minneapolis suburb shot and killed a Black man during a traffic stop, and now faces a second-degree manslaughter charge.
On Thursday, the defense rested its case in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis officer charged with murder in the death of George Floyd, whose death last year ignited a nationwide wave of protests.
(With input from Reuters)