Part of 2020–2021 United States racial unrest | |
Date | March 31, 2021 |
---|---|
Time | 1:00 a.m. CDT [1] |
Location | Portage Park, Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
Type | Shooting |
Deaths | Anthony Alvarez |
On March 31, 2021, Anthony Alvarez, a 22-year-old Latino man, was shot and killed by a Chicago Police Department officer in the Portage Park neighborhood on the Northwest Side of Chicago. [2] Police body camera footage of Alvarez' death was released on April 28, showing Alvarez being shot in the back while fleeing from police with a firearm in his hand. [3] The footage of Alvarez' death was the third high-profile release of footage showing police killing a young Latino in the month of April 2021, following Adam Toledo and Mario Gonzalez. [4] [5]
Anthony Alvarez was a 22-year-old Latino man from Chicago. He was a father. [6]
Evan Solano also a Latino was identified as the officer who shot Alvarez. [7] He has been an officer for the Chicago Police Department since 2015. [8]
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability has launched an investigation into the incident. A spokesperson for the organization recommended that Solano should "be relieved of police powers during the pendency of this investigation." [9] The Cook County State's Attorney’s office announced on March 15, 2022 that Solano and his partner “created the conditions" which necessitated the use of deadly force, but that the office would not file charges in the shooting. [10]
In body cam footage of Alvarez' death, Solano can be seen pursuing Alvarez on Laramie Avenue, [11] after what Mayor Lightfoot described as a minor traffic violation. [12] At the intersection of Laramie and Eddy, a gun is visible in Alvarez's hand, Solano shouted "Drop the gun! Drop the gun!" before immediately firing five shots in quick succession at Alvarez' back. [13] Alvarez asks "Why are you shooting me?" to which Solano replies "You had a gun." [14] [15] Alvarez was later pronounced dead at the hospital. [16]
Alvarez's father said “I can't believe he is gone. I really miss my son. I just want some answers; why did they do this to Anthony?” [17] At a protest for Alvarez, his aunt stated, "He didn't deserve to get killed this way. What these cops did to him, it's not right. They murdered my nephew. They killed them and they killed a part of me, a part of our family. We’re never going to be the same." [18]
On May 1, about a hundred people marched through Portage Park in Chicago from West Irving Park Road and North Central Avenue to the site of Alvarez' death. [19] Alvarez' family was amongst the protestors; his daughter held a sign reading "I miss my daddy." [18] Protestors chanted "Hands up, don’t shoot" and “If Anthony don't get no justice, then they don't get no peace.” [18] Activists stated, "We want that cop charged. We want the police defunded and that money put back into the communities." [19]
In response to Alvarez' death, the ACLU released a statement, saying, "Chicago communities also suffer trauma with each of these releases –especially Latino communities, which once again see how police respond to people from their neighborhoods... Chicago residents deserve meaningful changes to policing. They deserve a new policy on foot pursuits that is informed by community voices and driven by community needs –and one that actually results in changes in how police officers treat human beings." [20]
Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot stated in a press conference prior to the video's release, "We can't live in a world where a minor traffic offense results in someone being shot and killed. That's not acceptable to me, and it shouldn't be acceptable to anyone." [21] Ald. George Cardenas stated, "The guy didn't look like he was a threat to the officer. If he faces the officer with the gun, then maybe that's a reason to kind of react... But if he's not facing you, you've got to give him time to get on his knees, put his hands behind his back. The whole thing was, 'Drop the gun. Drop the gun.' Then, pow, pow, pow... The situation is not good." Cardenas also said that Illinois state law "allows you to carry a gun, so a lot of people are gonna have guns in their hands. That's not a reason to shoot anybody.” [22]
U.S. House Representative Jesús "Chuy" García wrote on twitter, "Whether it's a 13yo or a 22yo, police encounters shouldn't end in death. The killings of Adam Toledo & Anthony Alvarez aren't isolated, rather the tip of an iceberg revealing a system tilted against Black & Brown communities. Whatever the circumstances, the killings must end." [23]
Illinois State Representative Will Guzzardi said, "There's nothing you can do, no record on your background, no affiliations, no history, nothing you can do to deserve being shot in the back while you run. Let me repeat that. There is nothing Anthony could have done to deserve the fate that befell him. This is not an indictment of any bad apples. But rather of the very role that we have given to law enforcement, a role that they didn't ask for and that they don't want, and a role that leads inexorability to the kind of tragedy that we mourn yet again today." [24]
In the aftermath of both Alvarez' and Toledo's shootings, Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said that changes to the city's foot-pursuit policy would be in place by the end of the summer of 2021. [25] The city's practice has been under scrutiny since 2017, when a Department of Justice report called foot pursuits "'inherently dangerous' because officers can experience fatigue or adrenaline, which can compromise their ability to make sound judgments or use less force as the threat diminishes." [26]
The city's police is currently under a federal consent decree, which requires the department to make reforms to its policing practices. [26] In 2020, a civil rights lawsuit forced Chicago to retrain its officers on foot pursuit tactics, but the court-mandated independent monitoring team has warned that officers don't have "the requisite buy-in" on the reforms, because "There is a sense that these concepts go against the culture of the organization." [26]
The murder of Laquan McDonald took place on October 20, 2014, in Chicago, Illinois. McDonald was a 17-year-old who was fatally shot by a Chicago Police Officer, Jason Van Dyke. Police had initially reported that McDonald was behaving erratically while walking down the street, refusing to put down a knife, and that he had lunged at officers. Preliminary internal police reports described the incident similarly, leading to the shooting being judged as justifiable, and Van Dyke not being charged at the time. This was later disproved after a video of the encounter was released, showing that McDonald was walking away.
On January 18, 2016, Daniel Leetin Shaver of Granbury, Texas, was fatally shot by police officer Philip Brailsford in the hallway of a La Quinta Inn & Suites hotel in Mesa, Arizona. Police were responding to a report that a rifle had been pointed out of the window of Shaver's hotel room.
Patrick Harmon was a 50-year-old African-American man fatally shot from behind by police officer Clinton Fox in Salt Lake City, Utah, on August 13, 2017. The shooting took place after Harmon was pulled over by an officer for riding a bicycle without proper lighting. The incident led to protests in Salt Lake City, some organized by Black Lives Matter.
Sean Monterrosa was a 22-year-old Latino American man who was fatally shot on June 2, 2020, by Vallejo police officer Jarrett Tonn. Monterrosa was on his knees and had his hands above his waist when Tonn shot him through the windshield of his unmarked police pickup truck. The police later said Tonn shot him because he erroneously believed a hammer in Monterrosa's pocket was a gun. Monterrosa later died at a local hospital.
On March 29, 2021, Adam Toledo, a 13-year-old Latino American boy, was shot and killed by Chicago Police Department (CPD) officer Eric Stillman in the Little Village neighborhood on the West Side of Chicago at 2:38am local time.
On April 5, 2021, Micronesian 16-year-old Iremamber Sykap was killed on Kalākaua Avenue when Honolulu police officer Geoffrey Thom fired 10 rounds at Sykap through the rear window of a stolen car after it had stopped at an intersection following a police pursuit. Thom was charged with second-degree murder for the shooting, and two other Honolulu Police Department officers were charged with attempted second-degree murder. The charges were dismissed in district court on August 18, 2021.
Amir Locke, a 22-year-old Black American man, was fatally shot on February 2, 2022, by SWAT officer Mark Hanneman of the Minneapolis Police Department inside an apartment in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where police were executing a no-knock search warrant in a homicide investigation. The officer-involved shooting was reviewed by the office of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, the office of Hennepin County attorney Michael Freeman, and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Ellison and Freeman declined to file criminal charges against the officer who shot Locke in a report released on April 6, 2022.
Chicago shooting or Chicago massacre may refer to: