Fox’s Sean Hannity refers to Adam Toledo as ’13-year-old man’
“We are awaiting the release this hour of Chicago Police bodycam footage that captured the fatal police shooting of a young 13-year-old man by the name of Adam Toledo,” said Hannity
Fox’s Sean Hannity is being called out for labeling a 13-year-old police brutality victim as a man.
Read More: Prosecutor didn’t ‘fully inform himself’ before testifying Adam Toledo had gun
On Thursday, Hannity covered the tragic story of Adam Toledo, a 13-year-old boy who was shot by police in Chicago last month, but labeled the young teen as a man.
“We are awaiting the release this hour of Chicago Police bodycam footage that captured the fatal police shooting of a young 13-year-old man by the name of Adam Toledo,” said Hannity. “And if social media is any indication, there’s a lot of chatter today about possible unrest. I hope it doesn’t happen but with Chicago’s track record, every weekend — you know, I guess, you’d have to go with the odds, considering there are dozens and dozens of shootings and killings every weekend in Chicago — that this might not be particularly good.”
Hannity’s words are an example of the way white media inaccurately depicts Black and kids of color to detach them from their youth to justify violence and brutality against them.
Twitter users wasted no time calling out Hannity.
“AdamToledo was a 13 year old boy. Unarmed, murdered by police…. Fox News reports him as a 13 year old MAN. Yet, they reported Kyle Rittenhouse as a 17 year old BOY walking around shooting people with an AR-15? Do something, Mayor Lightfoot,” wrote a user.
“One Fox News called a 17 year old boy protecting his community. He killed 2, & walked TO cops w/at-15 & they gave him water. He’s a free even now. The other Fox News said is a 13 year old MAN. He’s dead. Why so many are beyond angry,” voiced another.
Read More: Video of Chicago police shooting of Adam Toledo, 13, draws outrage
As per theGrio, video footage of the incident has horrified the community.
The graphic body camera footage of a Chicago police officer fatally shooting 13-year-old Toledo was released to the public Thursday afternoon.
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability, or COPA, initially said it couldn’t release the video because it involved the shooting of a minor, but it changed course after the mayor and police superintendent called for the video’s release. The footage comes more than two weeks after Toledo was killed following a foot chase in the predominantly Latino and Black neighborhood Little Village on the city’s West Side.
Per The Associated Press, the March 29 shooting occurred before dawn after a police technology detected gun shots in the area. The teen, who was Latino, and a 21-year-old man fled on foot when confronted by police, and an officer shot Toledo once in the chest following a foot chase during what the department described as an “armed confrontation.”
A Cook County prosecutor previously claimed the child had a gun in his right hand, but the video shows Toledo’s hands were raised with no weapon and he complied with the officer’s commands — still, he was shot and some are even calling it cold-blooded murder.
“Simply put, we failed Adam,” Lightfoot said during a City Hall news conference, per Chicago Tribune. She also noted that the incident “left a child dead, a mother in mourning and a family in crisis.”
Authorities released a series of extensive videos from body-worn cameras and surveillance footage that reportedly shows the teenager discarding a gun in an alley as he turns toward the officer with his hands raised.
“It was excruciating. There are several videos that kind of start at the beginning of the episode, but watching the body cam footage which shows young Adam after he was shot is extremely difficult,” Lightfoot said. “I would just say, and I’ve said this to a number of people on my staff … as a mom, this is not something you want children to see.”
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