Former Washington, D.C., Police Chief Charles Ramsey told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that the shooting of 13-year-old Adam Toledo “was reasonable.”
“Tragic as it was, the shooting was reasonable,” said Ramsey, who was also commissioner of the Philadelphia Police Department and currently serves as CNN’s law enforcement analyst, Mediaite reported.
Video of Toledo’s shooting by a Chicago police officer was released on Thursday and caused backlash, with people saying it was another unreasonable police shooting.
However, Ramsey said after reviewing all the footage from Chicago’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability that he believes the officer was justified in his actions.
“I know right now everybody’s, you know, blood in the water about policing. And I have not hesitated to speak up whenever officers inappropriately use force of any kind. This ain’t one of those cases. I don’t know how many people have ever chased an armed person down an alley at night. I have and I know what it’s like, believe me,” Ramsey said.
Ramsey said there was “less than a second” between the time the officer saw a gun in the minor’s hand to the moment he shot the boy.
“I believe that’s reasonable,” Ramsey said. The officer only shot once and immediately applied aid afterward.
A gun was found five feet away from Toledo after he was shot, which Ramsey said is consistent with Toledo either throwing the gun away at the last second or the gun flying out of his hand when he was shot.
Many lawmakers say they want justice for Toledo and the officer’s actions were unreasonable.
But the Chicago Police Union head said that the “officer’s actions were heroic” and completely “justified.”