Chicago police leaders have issued an “officer safety alert” to cops warning that the department’s narcotics unit has learned that factions of the Latin Kings in the Ogden patrol district on the Southwest Side “were instructed by ranking members to shoot at unmarked Chicago police vehicles.”
The alert, sent out Thursday, said factions of the gang planned to retaliate following the fatal police shooting of 13-year-old Adam Toledo at about 2 a.m. March 29 in an alley in the 2400 block of South Sawyer Avenue.
The alert warned that members of the gang were likely to shoot at unmarked Chicago police vehicles but didn’t say why the Kings would be retaliating.
The police department declined to comment.
The warning covered a large portion of Little Village — between 23rd Street and 28th Street and between Lawndale Avenue and Whipple Street.
Police officials previously said that, on the morning of the shooting, officers responded to reports of gunfire and found Adam and a man in an alley to the west of the 2300 block of South Sawyer.
One officer chased Adam — who police said was armed — and shot him in the chest behind Farragut Career Academy High School.
Police released a photo of a gun they said they recovered at the scene.
It wasn’t until two days later that the boy’s mother was notified of his death — and three days later until authorities revealed publicly that he was just 13.
The city’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability, which investigates all Chicago police shootings, said Friday it would show the “troubling video footage” of the encounter to the Toledo family before releasing it to the public.
Contributing: Sam Kelly
