CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- The Civilian Office of Police Accountability released video Wednesday shows a Chicago police officer fatally shoot 22-year-old Anthony Alvarez as he ran from police with a gun in his hand in the Portage Park neighborhood last month.
According to the police bodycam video released by the city’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability, Anthony Alvarez is seen running from a police SUV. Then there is a foot chase down an alley. Two officers chase Alvarez around a corner and in front of a home. Alvarez stumbles, gets up, and continues running away.
A cell phone is seen in his left hand and a gun in his right in the footage captured by the body camera of the officer who pulled the trigger.
A Chicago police officer is heard yelling, “Drop the gun! Drop the gun!” before firing five shots from close range.
Alvarez collapsed onto the front sidewalk of a home on the 5200 block of West Eddy Street in the early-morning hours of March 31.
A camera mounted to the home feet from where Alvarez collapsed showed a gun fall from his hand as he fell to the pavement.
“Why’d you shoot me?” Alvarez asked the officer.
“You had a gun,” said the officer, who then told his partner to place handcuffs on Alvarez.
“No, I’m going to render aid,” his partner said before applying a tourniquet and administering chest compressions.
"The gun is right there...stop, stop, stop moving. I am trying to help you," the partner is heard on the video.
The video doesn’t show Alvarez pointing a gun at the officers in pursuit.
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Alvarez, who was struck multiple times, was pronounced dead at Illinois Masonic Medical Center.
Police have not said what sparked the initial foot chase, which began seconds earlier when the officers encountered Alvarez at a nearby gas station.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot and attorneys representing the Alvarez family issued a joint statement Wednesday morning that called for peace.
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“Both parties are acutely aware of the range of emotions that will accompany the release of these materials, and we collectively issue this statement and ask that those who wish to express themselves do so peacefully and with respect for our communities and the residents of Chicago,” the statement read.
Alvarez’s family and its lawyers “believe that the release of these videos will be the beginning of a long process of healing for the family, and for all those who knew and loved Anthony.”
“COPA’s investigation is ongoing, and both parties expect and have the utmost confidence that officials will determine the complete and unbiased set of facts in this case. This tragic event provides further motivation for the expediency for reform to the City’s foot pursuit policies. We ask that all continue to respect the Alvarez family’s right to privacy as they grieve during this incredibly painful time," the statement concluded.
In Bronzeville, the Mayor refused to express an opinion on the case, which is under two investigations, but then, she paused and pointedly addressed the general circumstances.
"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," Lightfoot said.
Lightfoot also acknowledged the shooting involved a foot chase and said she hopes a rewrite on police policies of such chases will be ready for public comment sometime next month.
Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said he has also seen the video.
"I had reviewed the video several weeks ago. I have been reviewing it since, several times, so I've had several different views of the video at several different times - soon after it happened and several different times after," he said.
Brown refused to comment on why Alvarez was stopped in the first place.
Alvarez’s family saw the video footage Tuesday.
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"I want more answers," Alvarez's mother said in Spanish that was then translated through another family member. "The videos I saw don't explain what I saw in the morgue. I want to know why they were running after him. To this day, I have no answers. I still want answers as to why they were chasing my son."
Todd Pugh, an attorney for the family, told CBS 2 “it was incredibly difficult, it was an absolutely chilling scene, and as his mother indicated already, it has left us with more questions than answers.
“But I know what I saw, and I saw Chicago police officers shoot their son as he ran away from them."
The shooting happened two days after an officer shot and killed 13-year-old Adam Toledo on March 29 in Little Village. Toledo’s killing also happened during a foot chase, prompting Mayor Lori Lightfoot to direct the police department to draft a new foot pursuit policy.
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