DEBBIE ELLIOTT, HOST:
Calls for police reform are growing stronger. Earlier this week, just miles away from the Derek Chauvin trial in Minneapolis, a policewoman killed Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, during a traffic stop. In Chicago, an officer fatally shot Adam Toledo, a 13-year-old Latino boy, last month. But there's new public outrage this week after the release of graphic bodycam video. Thousands gathered in the city last night to protest, as Linda Lutton of member station WBEZ reports.
LINDA LUTTON, BYLINE: The video shows police chasing Adam Toledo down an alley. The boy has a gun at one point but appears to toss it away as a police officer commands him to drop it. As he raises his hands, the officer fires a single shot, and the boy crumples to the ground.
(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: Say his name.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: Adam Toledo.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: Say his name.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: Adam Toledo.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: Say his name.
LUTTON: Last night, a diverse crowd - young and old, white, Latino and Black - gathered peacefully in a park. Simone Whiteley-Allen was on this same spot protesting George Floyd's killing.
SIMONE WHITELEY-ALLEN: I mean, we're here again from last summer, being out here all summer long for the same exact reason. And so we're just going to continue to be here.
LUTTON: Whiteley-Allen said she won't be satisfied with a single police officer going to jail. She wants to change everything about how police conduct their work. Claudia Triana, another protester, agrees. She was there with her husband, Asef Attarwala.
CLAUDIA TRIANA: Well, I think defunding the police is definitely a first step.
ASEF ATTARWALA: Yeah, I would say that and investing in communities with that money.
LUTTON: Nearby, teacher Tom Story was holding a homemade sign that said Adam deserved better.
TOM STORY: And it breaks my heart to know that a seventh-grader was gunned down. Policing is just out of control in this country.
LUTTON: He said he couldn't watch the video. Many in the crowd said the same. Story teaches kids just a year older than Toledo.
STORY: A lot of them were very outraged. You know, I work with a large community of Latinx students. And so they, obviously, were feeling this a little bit closer to home than some of their white classmates, I think. But everybody couldn't believe the age of Adam and just the fact that this keeps happening.
LUTTON: The shooting is under investigation. For NPR News, I'm Linda Lutton in Chicago. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.