Police shot and killed a 13-year-old boy after an “armed confrontation” in Little Village early Monday, officials said.

Adam Toledo, 13, who lived in the neighborhood, was shot in his chest and later died in the incident, the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.

In a statement, police said officers responded to a ShotSpotter alert about 2:35 a.m. and saw two males standing in an alley in the Southwest Side neighborhood.

One armed person ran from the scene and was shot by a police officer during an “armed confrontation” in the 2300 block of South Sawyer Avenue, police said. Farragut Career Academy High School is located at the end of the block.

That person, later identified as Toledo, died at the scene, police said. An autopsy found he died of a gunshot wound to his chest.

Police shared a photo of a gun allegedly recovered at the scene.

Rafael Hurtado Jr., 30, who said he has lived a few houses down from Toledo’s home for years, called the shooting tragic and urged CPD to release any footage related to the shooting.

“It’s hard to take CPDs word for it” that he was armed, he said. “Especially with everything that’s been going on with the police shootings in other places.”

He said that “it’s tragic for everyone involved, for the family, for the kid because he was so young and for the officer who pulled the trigger.”

The other person who ran from police, 21-year-old Ruben Roman Jr. of Edgewater, was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor count of resisting arrest, police said. In 2019, Roman pleaded guilty to illegal gun possession stemming from an arrest in Evanston and was sentenced to probation, court records show.

The officer in Monday’s incident was placed on desk duty for 30 days while the Civilian Office of Police Accountability investigates the shooting, police said.

It wasn’t immediately clear if COPA would share video and evidence of the shooting. COPA is required to release body camera video of police shootings within 60 days of the incident, but department policy prohibits them from sharing video if the victim is under 18 years old.

COPA has not released details about the incident. A spokesman for COPA did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday morning.

Two other people have been shot by Chicago police officers this week. Early Wednesday, an officer fatally shot an armed man in Portage Park after officers chased the man on foot. An officer fired shots after the man allegedly pulled out a gun in the 5200 block of West Eddy Street, police said.

Less than an hour later, an off-duty Chicago police officer shot someone breaking into their home in Albany Park on the Northwest Side. The officer shot the man in his face about 12:55 a.m. as the man broke into the officer’s home in the 3100 block of Belle Plaine Avenue, police said. The man was rushed in serious condition to Illinois Masonic Medical Center.

Contributing: Cindy Hernandez, Frank Main

Read more on crime, and track the city’s homicides.

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Please send corrections and additions to [email protected]

Thursday, April 1

CHICAGO LAKE STREET

Bowen vs. Corliss at Eckersall

Butler vs. South Shore at Gately

King vs. Fenger at Gately

CHICAGO MADISON STREET

Senn at Chicago Academy

Marine vs. Foreman at Lane

Pritzker at Taft B

CHICAGO MICHIGAN AVENUE

Dyett vs. Gage Park at Stagg

CHICAGO STATE STREET

North Lawndale vs. UIC at Rockne

ILLINI BIG SHOULDERS

King vs. Fenger at Gately

Hyde Park vs. UP-Bronzeville at Gately

ILLINI HEARTLAND

Rauner vs. Steinmetz at Lane

Juarez vs. ITW Speer at Rockne

ILLINI SECOND CITY

Vocational at Brooks (canceled)

ILLINI WINDY CITY

Mather vs. Von Steuben at Winnemac

CCL/ESCC BLUE

Loyola at Brother Rice

CCL/ESCC GREEN

Providence at St. Rita

CCL/ESCC ORANGE

St. Laurence vs. Benet at Benedictine (canceled)

Nazareth at De La Salle

CCL/ESCC RED

Marian Catholic at DePaul Prep

CCL/ESCC WHITE

St. Ignatius at Joliet Catholic

Fenwick at Marmion

CSL NORTH

Highland Park at Niles North

CSL SOUTH

Glenbrook North at Maine South

FOX VALLEY

Dundee-Crown at Jacobs

Cary-Grove at Crystal Lake South (canceled)

Prairie Ridge at Crystal Lake Central

ILLINOIS CENTRAL EIGHT

Herscher at Streator

Manteno at Peotone

Wilmington at Reed-Custer

KISHWAUKEE RIVER

Marengo at Harvard

Richmond-Burton at Woodstock

Woodstock North at Johnsburg

MSL EAST

Hersey at Prospect

Buffalo Grove at Wheeling

Elk Grove at Rolling Meadows

MSL WEST

Barrington at Conant

Hoffman Estates at Schaumburg

Fremd at Palatine

NORTH SUBURBAN

Warren at Waukegan

Libertyville at Lake Forest

Mundelein at Lake Zurich

Zion-Benton at Stevenson

NORTHERN LAKE COUNTY

Grayslake Central at Round Lake

Grayslake North at Antioch

Lakes at Grant

North Chicago at Wauconda

SOUTH SUBURBAN RED

Richards at Oak Lawn

Shepard at Eisenhower

SOUTHWEST SUBURBAN BLUE

Homewood-Flossmoor at Sandburg

UPSTATE EIGHT

Bartlett at Elgin

Fenton at East Aurora

Larkin at West Chicago

South Elgin at Glenbard South

Streamwood at Glenbard East

WEST SUBURBAN GOLD

Addison Trail at Downers Grove South

Morton at Proviso East

Hinsdale South at Willowbrook

WEST SUBURBAN SILVER

Downers Grove North at Glenbard West

Proviso West at Oak Park

NONCONFERENCE

TF South at Reavis

Lisle at Coal City

Argo at Evergreen Park

Friday, April 2

DUKANE

Glenbard North at Lake Park

Geneva at Batavia

St. Charles East at St. Charles North

FOX VALLEY

Hampshire at Burlington Central

Huntley at McHenry

SANGAMON VALLEY

Watseka at Seneca

SOUTH SUBURBAN BLUE

TF North at Lemont

Hillcrest at Tinley Park

Oak Forest at Bremen

SOUTHLAND

Rich at Kankakee

SOUTHWEST PRAIRIE EAST

Joliet Central at Romeoville

Plainfield East at Joliet West

Plainfield South at Plainfield Central

SOUTHWEST PRAIRIE WEST

West Aurora vs. Oswego at Plainfield North

Plainfield North at Minooka

Yorkville at Oswego East

SOUTHWEST SUBURBAN RED

Lincoln-Way Central at Lincoln-Way East

Stagg at Lincoln-Way West

Saturday, April 3

CHICAGO MICHIGAN AVENUE

Richards/Harper vs. Kelly at Stagg

CHICAGO STATE STREET

Collins vs. Clemente at Rockne

ILLINI BIG SHOULDERS

Dunbar at Lindblom

ILLINI GREAT LAKES

Comer vs. Johnson at Eckersall

Catalyst Maria at Goode

Ag. Science vs. Bogan at Stagg

ILLINI HEARTLAND

Prosser vs. Kennedy at Rockne

ILLINI LAND OF LINCOLN

Raby at Lane

Taft vs. Lincoln Park at Lane

Westinghouse vs. Phillips at Solorio

ILLINI PRAIRIE STATE

Young at Orr

Bulls Prep vs. Payton at Rockne

Clark at Solorio

ILLINI RED BIRD

Hubbard vs. Curie at Gately

Morgan Park vs. Kenwood at Gately

Perspectives vs. Simeon at Gately

ILLINI SECOND CITY

Julian vs. Washington at Eckersall

Harlan vs. Carver at Gately

ILLINI WINDY CITY

Sullivan vs. Lake View at Winnemac

Amundsen vs. Schurz at Winnemac

CCL/ESCC BLUE

Marist at Mount Carmel

CCL/ESCC PURPLE

St. Patrick at St. Viator

Marian Central at Carmel

CSL NORTH

Deerfield at Vernon Hills

Maine West at Maine East

CSL SOUTH

Evanston at New Trier

Glenbrook South at Niles West

DUKANE

Wheaton Warrenville South at Wheaton North

DUPAGE VALLEY

DeKalb at Waubonsie Valley

Naperville Central at Naperville North (canceled)

INTERSTATE EIGHT

LaSalle-Peru at Plano

Morris at Ottawa

Rochell at Kaneland

Sandwich at Sycamore

METRO SUBURBAN BLUE

Aurora Christian at St. Francis

Aurora Central at Elmwood Park

IC Catholic at St. Edward

Riverside-Brookfield at Ridgewood

Wheaton Academy at Westmont

NORTHEASTERN ATHLETIC

Walther Christian at Momence

SANGAMON VALLEY

Clifton Central at Dwight

SOUTHLAND

Thornridge at Crete-Monee

Thornwood at Bloom

SOUTHWEST SUBURBAN BLUE

Lockport at Bolingbrook

SOUTHWEST SUBURBAN RED

Bradley-Bourbonnais at Andrew

NONCONFERENCE

Clemente at Marshall

Thornton at Hope Academy

York at Hinsdale Central

Chicago Christian at McNamara

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A look at the history of the Chicago Bears franchise.

The post Taking a Look At The Chicago Bears History first appeared on CHI CITY SPORTS l Chicago Sports Blog – News – Forum – Fans – Rumors.Read More

“A music community is a group of individuals that create music because they love doing it, and I think that’s the most important thing for me.”

Monique Golding, 40, moved to Chicago in 2017 and quickly became enmeshed in the city’s music communities.…Read More

“Both Floyd and I, our story, it’s a classic story of how many people get addicted to opioids. We both suffered from chronic pain. Mine was in my neck and his was in his back,” 45-year-old Courtney Ross said on Day Four of former Officer Derek Chauvin’s murder trial.

MINNEAPOLIS — George Floyd’s girlfriend cried on the witness stand Thursday as she told the story of how they first met in 2017 at a Salvation Army shelter where Floyd was a security guard with “this great Southern voice, raspy.” She also recounted how they both struggled with opioid addiction.

“Both Floyd and I, our story, it’s a classic story of how many people get addicted to opioids. We both suffered from chronic pain. Mine was in my neck and his was in his back,” 45-year-old Courteney Ross said on Day Four of former Officer Derek Chauvin’s murder trial.

She said they “tried really hard to break that addiction many times.”

Prosecutors put Ross on the stand as part of an effort to humanize Floyd in front of the jury and portray him as more than a crime statistic, and also apparently explain his drug use to the jurors and perhaps get them to empathize with what he went through.

Chauvin, 45, is charged with murder and manslaughter, accused of killing Floyd by kneeling on the 46-year-old Black man’s neck for 9 minutes, 29 seconds, as he lay face-down in handcuffs last May. The most serious charge against the now-fired white officer carries up to 40 years in prison.

The defense has argued that Chauvin did what he was trained to do and that Floyd’s death was caused instead by his illegal drug use, underlying health conditions and the adrenaline flowing through his body. An autopsy found fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system.

Under cross-examination by Chauvin attorney Eric Nelson, Ross said Floyd’s pet name for her in his phone was “Mama” — testimony that called into question the widely reported account that Floyd was crying out for this mother as he lay pinned to the pavement.

In some of the video, Floyd can be heard calling out, “Mama!” repeatedly and saying, “Mama, I love you! … Tell my kids I love them.”

In her testimony, Ross described how both she and Floyd struggled with their addiction to painkillers throughout their relationship. She said they both had prescriptions, and when those ran out, they took the prescriptions of others and also used illegal drugs.

“Addiction, in my opinion, is a lifelong struggle. … It’s not something that just kind of comes and goes. It’s something I’ll deal with forever,” she said.

In March 2020, Ross drove Floyd to the emergency room because he was in extreme stomach pain, and she later learned he overdosed. In the months that followed, Ross said, she and Floyd spent a lot of time together during the coronavirus quarantine, and Floyd was clean during that time.

But she suspected he began using again about two weeks before his death because his behavior changed: She said there would be times when he would be up and bouncing around, and other times when he would be unintelligible.

Ross began her testimony by telling how the two of them met.

“May I tell the story?” she asked. “It’s one of my favorite stories to tell.”

Ross said she had gone to the shelter because her sons’ father was staying there. She said she became upset because the father was not coming to the lobby to discuss their son’s birthday. Floyd came over to check on her.

“Floyd has this great Southern voice, raspy. He was like, `Sis, you OK, sis?’” Ross recalled. “I was tired. We’ve been through so much, my sons and I, and (for) this kind person just to come up and say, ‘Can I pray with you?’ … it was so sweet. At the time, I had lost a lot of faith in God.”

Minnesota is a rarity in explicitly permitting such “spark of life” testimony about a crime victim ahead of a verdict. Defense attorneys often complain that such testimony allows prosecutors to play on jurors’ emotions.

Floyd’s death, along with the harrowing bystander video of him gasping for breath as onlookers yelled at Chauvin to get off him, triggered sometimes violent protests around the world and demands that the U.S. confront racism and police brutality.

Thursday’s testimony came a day after prosecutors played extensive video footage that documented the chain of events that culminated in Floyd’s death, beginning with his alleged use of a counterfeit $20 bill at a neighborhood market to pay for a pack of cigarettes.

Bystander and police bodycam video showed officers pulling Floyd from his SUV at gunpoint, then struggling to put him in the back of the squad car as a panicky-sounding Floyd writhed and cried, “I’m claustrophobic!” The footage also showed Floyd being loaded into an ambulance.

When Floyd was finally taken away, a bystander objected to what Chauvin had done.

“That’s one person’s opinion,” Chauvin could be heard responding. “We gotta control this guy ’cause he’s a sizable guy… and it looks like he’s probably on something.”

Floyd was 6-foot-4 and 223 pounds, according to the autopsy. Chauvin’s lawyer said the officer is 5-foot-9 and 140 pounds.

___

Webber reported from Fenton, Michigan.

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Orange police Lt. Jennifer Amat also revealed that the gunman had chained gates to the complex closed, forcing officers who responded Wednesday to engage him from outside..

LOS ANGELES — The gunman who killed four people and wounded a fifth at an office complex knew all the victims either through business or personally, Southern California police said Thursday.

Orange police Lt. Jennifer Amat also revealed that the gunman had chained gates to the complex closed, forcing officers who responded Wednesday to engage him from outside.

Police recovered an automatic handgun and a backpack with pepper spray, handcuffs and ammunition.

Police withheld the identities of the dead but said one was a 9-year-old boy. The others were a man and two women. The wounded victim was only identified as a woman.

The gunman was also wounded and hospitalized. It was unclear whether the suspect suffered a self-inflicted wound or was shot by police.

Wednesday’s shooting happened in the city of Orange southeast of Los Angeles. When officers arrived, shots were ringing out at the building that includes a mobile home brokerage.

The violence was the third U.S. mass shooting in just over two weeks.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom in a tweet called the killings “horrifying and heartbreaking.”

“Our hearts are with the families impacted by this terrible tragedy tonight,” he said.

Amat said the shooting happened on both levels of the building.

Signs outside indicated a handful of businesses are located there — including an insurance office, a financial consulting firm, a legal services business and a phone repair store.

People gathered outside the building after the shooting hoping to get word about loved ones.

Paul Tovar told KTLA-TV that his brother owns a business in the building, Unified Homes, a mobile home broker.

“He’s not answering his phone, neither’s my niece,” Tovar said. “I’m pretty scared and worried … right now I’m just praying really hard.”

Charlie Espinoza also was outside the building and told The Orange County Register that he could not reach his fiancee, who works for a medical billing company.

Cody Lev, who lives across the street from the office building, told the newspaper he heard three loud pops that were spaced out, then three more. There was a period of silence and then Lev said he heard numerous shots, followed by sirens and more shots.

A Facebook livestream posted by a resident who lives near the office appeared to show officers carrying a motionless person from the building and officers helping another person.

Tim Smith’s home is separated from the office’s parking lot by a backyard wooden fence. He was in the back of his house when he heard a volley of three gunshots, then a volley of three and a final volley of four.

“The first words I heard after the shots were fired were ‘Don’t move or I will shoot you,’” Smith, 64, recounted Thursday morning.

Smith said he heard that repeated twice more by a man’s voice and believes it was a police officer speaking. He did not hear other voices or more shots. He later peeked over the fence and saw SWAT officers marching in a line in the building’s courtyard.

“It saddens me so much,” he said. “A senseless loss of life.”

The killings followed a mass shooting at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, last week that left 10 dead. A week before that, six Asian women were among eight people killed at three Atlanta-area spas.

“Enough is enough,” U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, tweeted. ”We have to do something about the guns on our streets.”

Orange is about 30 miles from Los Angeles and home to about 140,000 people. Amat said the shooting was the worst in the city since December 1997, when a gunman armed with an assault rifle attacked a California Department of Transportation maintenance yard.

Arturo Reyes Torres, 41, an equipment operator who had been fired six weeks earlier, killed four people and wounded others, including a police officer, before police killed him.

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Here’s Wednesday’s news on how COVID-19 is impacting Chicago and Illinois.

Latest

Chicago sees ‘quantum leap’ in COVID-19 cases — widening Lightfoot-Pritzker split over vaccine plans

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

Illinois’ COVID-19 uptick took another jump Wednesday as Chicago’s “quantum leap” in cases raised more concerns of a potential third surge of the virus, officials said.

Another 2,592 residents across the state were diagnosed with the virus among 77,727 tests, which lowered Illinois’ average positivity rate to 3.3%, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

But that key metric has shot up 57% overall in under three weeks, while COVID-19 hospitalizations have jumped 24% over the same time frame. More than 1,400 beds were occupied by coronavirus patients Tuesday night, the most the state’s hospitals have treated since Feb. 24.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Mayor Lori Lightfoot agree the uptick has halted any talk of further reopening — but they’re still far apart on when all adults should be eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine dose.

The governor voiced concern Wednesday over the city’s timetable for that move, saying “I think that they will want to do that sooner than they are currently planning to.”

Read the full story from Fran Spielman and Mitchell Armentrout here.

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News

12:39 p.m. Company producing J&J vaccine had history of violations

The company at the center of quality problems that led Johnson & Johnson to discard 15 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine has a string of citations from U.S. health officials for quality control problems.

Emergent BioSolutions, a little-known company vital to the vaccine supply chain, was a key to Johnson & Johnson’s plan to deliver 100 million doses of its vaccine to the United States by the end of May. But the Food and Drug Administration repeatedly has cited Emergent for problems such as poorly trained employees, cracked vials and problems managing mold and other contamination around one of its facilities, according to records obtained by The Associated Press through the Freedom of Information Act. The records cover inspections at Emergent facilities since 2017.

Johnson & Johnson said Wednesday that a batch of vaccine made by Emergent at its Baltimore factory, known as Bayview, cannot be used because it did not meet quality standards. It was unclear how many doses were involved or how the problem would affect future deliveries of J&J’s vaccine. The company said in a statement it was still planning to deliver 100 million doses by the end of June and was “aiming to deliver those doses by the end of May.”

“Human errors do happen,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said Thursday in an interview on CBS’ “This Morning.” “You have checks and balances. … That’s the reason why the good news is that it did get picked up. As I mentioned, that’s the reason nothing from that plant has gone into anyone that we’ve administered to.”

Read the full story here.

11:58 a.m. Positive COVID-19 test forces postponement of Mets-Nationals season opener

WASHINGTON — The Opening Day baseball game between the Nationals and Mets was postponed hours before it was scheduled to begin Thursday night because of coronavirus concerns after one of Washington’s players tested positive for COVID-19.

The Nationals issued a statement saying “ongoing contract tracing involving members of the Nationals organization” was the reason for scrapping the game at their stadium.

The contest was not immediately rescheduled, even though Friday already had been set up as an off day that could accommodate a game pushed back from Thursday if there were a rainout, for example.

The Nationals said in a statement the game “will not be made up on Friday.”

Washington general manager Mike Rizzo said Wednesday that one of his team’s players had tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday, before the team left spring training camp.

Rizzo said four other players and one staff member were following quarantine protocols after contract tracing determined they were in close contact with the person who tested positive.

Rizzo did not identify any of those involved.

“We’re still in the process of finding out exactly what their status is,” Rizzo said Wednesday. “They’re certainly out for tomorrow’s game.”

Read the full story here.

9:24 a.m. James Taylor kicking off rescheduled 2021 tour at the United Center

Live music may be returning to the United Center this summer.

James Taylor on Wednesday announced his postponed world tour with special guest Jackson Browne will kick off at the Chicago venue on July 29.

Tickets purchased for the original dates will be honored for the trek that wraps up Nov. 1 in San Diego. (The tour was originally slated for a stop June 9 the United Center; refunds are available at point of purchase for those unable to make the new date.)

Taylor postponed the tour last April due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which shut down all live music/theater venues across the country. Browne contracted coronavirus last March, revealing at the time he suffered only minor symptoms and recuperated while quarantining at home.

“(Jackson and I/James and I) want to thank all those who have graciously held onto their tickets; we appreciate your continued patience as we navigate these unchartered waters. We didn’t want to have to cancel this tour that we’ve been waiting so long to perform together, so we’ve been working to get these dates rescheduled to a time period when the U.S. is reopened and safe to gather for a concert,” the two legendary singer-songwriters said in a joint statement.”

Read the full story from Miriam Di Nunzio here.

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New Cases & Vaccination Numbers

• Another 2,592 residents across the state were diagnosed with the virus among 77,727 tests.
• Nearly 500 Chicagoans are testing positive every day, an average figure that has jumped 37% over the past week.
• Illinois is vaccinating more people than ever as the state’s rolling average is up to a new high of 109,538 shots doled out per day.
• On Tuesday, 137,445 shots went into arms, the state’s third-highest daily total yet.

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LOS ANGELES — A child was among four people killed Wednesday in a shooting at a Southern California office building that left a fifth victim wounded and the gunman critically injured, police said.

The violence in the city of Orange southeast of Los Angeles was the third U.S. mass shooting in just over two weeks.

When police arrived at the two-story building at about 5:30 p.m., shots were being fired, Orange Police Lt. Jennifer Amat said. Officers opened fire and the suspect was taken to a hospital, Amat said.

It was unclear whether the suspect suffered a self-inflicted wound or was shot by police. Police provided no details about the victims other than to say one was a child and a that woman was critically wounded.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom in a tweet called the killings “horrifying and heartbreaking.”

“Our hearts are with the families impacted by this terrible tragedy tonight,” he said.

Amat had no information about what may have prompted the attack. She said the shooting happened on both levels of the building.

Signs outside indicated a handful of businesses are located there — including an insurance office, a financial consulting firm, a legal services business and a phone repair store.

People gathered outside the building after the shooting hoping to get word about loved ones.

Paul Tovar told KTLA-TV that his brother owns a business in the building, Unified Homes, a mobile home broker.

“He’s not answering his phone, neither’s my niece,” Tovar said. “I’m pretty scared and worried … right now I’m just praying really hard.”

Charlie Espinoza also was outside the building and told The Orange County Register that he could not reach his fiance, who works for a medical billing company.

Cody Lev, who lives across the street from the office building, told the newspaper he heard three loud pops that were spaced out, then three more. There was a period of silence and then Lev said he heard numerous shots, followed by sirens and more shots.

A Facebook livestream posted by a resident who lives near the office appeared to show officers carrying a motionless person from the building and officers helping another person.

The killings followed a mass shooting at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, last week that left 10 dead. A week before that, six Asian women were among eight people killed at three Atlanta-area spas.

Orange is about 30 miles from Los Angeles and home to about 140,000 people. Amat said the shooting was the worst in the city since December 1997, when a gunman armed with an assault rifle attacked a California Department of Transportation maintenance yard.

Arturo Reyes Torres, 41, an equipment operator who had been fired six weeks earlier, killed four people and wounded others, including a police officer, before police killed him.

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A person fatally shot by police in Little Village during what police called an “armed confrontation” has been identified as a 13-year-old boy.

He was identified Thursday as Adam Toledo, 13, of Little Village, by the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Toledo was shot and killed by a Chicago police officer early Monday after police responded to a call of gunfire.

In a statement, police said officers responded to a ShotSpotter alert about 2:35 a.m. and saw two males standing in an alley in the Southwest Side neighborhood.

One armed person ran from the scene and was shot in the chest by a police officer during an “armed confrontation” in the 2300 block of South Sawyer Avenue, police said. That person, later identified as Toledo, died at the scene. An autopsy found he died of a gunshot wound to his chest.

The other person who also ran from police was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor count of resisting arrest, police said.

Police shared a photo of a gun allegedly recovered at the scene.

The officer was placed on desk duty for 30 days while the Civilian Office of Police Accountability investigates the shooting, police said.

COPA has not released details about the incident. A spokesman for COPA did not immediately to a request for comment Thursday morning.

Read more on crime, and track the city’s homicides.

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NEW YORK — Fed up with the incessant attacks on Asian Americans, Stan Lee recently started voluntarily patrolling San Francisco’s Chinatown. So when the 53-year-old fire lieutenant saw a video of a New York City woman getting brutally beaten, he didn’t have to guess how his fellow volunteers — other Asian American firefighters — were taking it.

“I’m pretty sure they’re all steamed, like I am,” said Lee, who is Chinese American. “It’s personal. It could have been our aunt or our mom or our grandma.”

The vicious assault of a 65-year-old woman while walking to church in the daytime this week near New York City’s Times Square has heightened already palpable levels of outrage over anti-Asian attacks that escalated with the pandemic.

New York police say the assailant yelled racial slurs at the Filipina American woman and told her, “You don’t belong here!” The video quickly drew millions of views along with widespread condemnation, not just for its heinous nature but the seemingly indifferent bystanders. The assailant was arrested and charged Wednesday with hate crimes.

Asian American groups from coast to coast, already doing more than digital activism — patrolling, escorting, chaperoning, — are trying not to let this latest hate crime discourage those efforts.

“I think that gives us more motive to take care of our own,” Lee said. “We see everyone in our community as our own. It doesn’t have to be just Asians.”

In New York City, Teresa Ting, a 29-year-old Chinese American, started what has become the Main Street Patrol following an attack on another older Asian American woman in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens in February.

“It literally could have been my mother had it been the wrong place, wrong time,” Ting said of that attack.

She wanted to do something more than posting messages on social media and was happily surprised when people showed up to volunteer. The group has since organized volunteers to go out in parts of Flushing, a heavily Asian neighborhood, on weekend afternoons.

Volunteers travel in groups of three, and have an app they use to communicate with each other. Ting, who wants to expand to offer a chaperone service, said she wanted people to know how to get involved and tactics they could use.

“I think it’s very necessary, especially in the Asian community right now, just because a lot of the elders have a language barrier. They can’t speak or understand English,” she said. “That’s why I feel a lot of hate crimes have been unreported.”

Bystander training has also been on the rise and the need was only reinforced by the video of this week’s attack. Emily May, co-founder of Hollaback!, which offers training on how to respond when witnessing harassment, said it was disturbing that the video showed several witnesses to the attack who didn’t seem to render aid to the woman.

Two have been identified as lobby workers, and the attack took place on the street right outside of their building. Neither intervened or called 911, the police said. One of them was even seen closing the building door during the assault.

May said there were things they could have done, even if they were worried about harm coming to themselves, like shouting or otherwise creating a distraction.

“I still think there are ways that they could have intervened without compromising their own safety,” she said.

Marita Etcubanez, senior director of strategic initiatives for Asian Americans Advancing Justice, said the organization partnered with Hollaback! last year to offer free online bystander training that focused on Asian Americans.

“It’s clear that the training was responding to a need and a lot of concerns within the community because we had over 1,000 people register for the first two trainings that we offered,” she said.

The interest in the training has cycled up and down since, and demand has increased as anti-Asian attacks have gotten more coverage.

Asian Americans are still reeling just weeks after a white gunman opened fire inside three Asian-owned massage businesses in metro Atlanta. Eight people, including six women of Asian descent, died. The shooter has not been charged with any hate crimes, and authorities received intense backlash when they cited the suspect blaming a “sex addiction.” Critics say the victims’ race is inextricably tied to the motive.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland on Tuesday ordered a review of how the Justice Department can best deploy its resources to combat hate crimes during a surge in incidents targeting Asian Americans.

Garland issued a department-wide memo announcing the 30-day review, citing the “recent rise in hate crimes and hate incidents, particularly the disturbing trend in reports of violence against members of the Asian American and Pacific Islander community since the start of the pandemic.”

Asian American activists say former President Donald Trump is partly to blame because of his rhetoric around COVID-19, which he frequently referred to as the “Chinese virus.” They say he gave license for people to show racism that was already present and rooted in decades of anti-Asian sentiment in the U.S.

According to a report from Stop AAPI Hate, more than 3,800 anti-Asian incidents were reported to the organization between March 2020 through February. The group, which tracks incidents of discrimination, hate and xenophobia against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the U.S., said that number is “only a fraction of the number of hate incidents that actually occur.”

According to the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, hate crimes targeting Asians ballooned by 150% last year, while hate crimes overall during the pandemic went down 7%.

Lee, the San Francisco firefighter, said he is willing to keep volunteering for however long it feels necessary, adding that he often bumps into volunteers from other citizen patrols, a sign of how much attention the issue is getting. Asian American seniors he’s met still want to maintain their routines.

“If they are scared they’re not showing it, because they still have to go about their daily lives,” he said.

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Tang reported from Phoenix. Hajela and Tang are members of The Associated Press’ Race and Ethnicity team. Follow Tang on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ttangAP. Follow Hajela on Twitter at http://twitter.com/dhajela.

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