Adam Toledo’s family challenges court order after ex-cop who fatally shot the teen sees his disability benefits increase

The family of Adam Toledo is challenging a recent court order that increased disability payments to the former Chicago police officer who fatally shot the 13-year-old in Little Village in 2021.

Cook County Judge Sophia Hall last month ordered that the Policemen’s Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago increase the monthly payments to ex-officer Eric Stillman from 50% of his former salary to 75% until he reaches the Police Department’s mandatory retirement age, 63. Stillman is now 39.

Hall’s order came after she found the pension board erred in its determination that Stillman’s post-traumatic stress disorder was not entirely caused by the Toledo shooting. The ex-officer is a veteran who served in Afghanistan.

“There is no competent evidence that Stillman’s PTSD was due in part to a preexisting injury,” Hall wrote in July.

Last week, though, an attorney for Toledo’s family filed a motion to intervene in the case, filed by Stillman last year, and another asking the judge to reconsider.

In court filings, Toledo’s family argues that the pension board got it right in its decision to award Stillman 50% of his salary because there was “preexisting stress” identified in the record, namely a diagnosis that Stillman struggled with anxiety.

The next hearing is scheduled for early September. Stillman’s attorney didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Stillman joined CPD in 2015, though a department spokesperson told the Tribune on Friday that he’s currently inactive. In March 2021, Stillman shot and killed Toledo during a foot pursuit in Little Village.

In body-worn camera footage previously released by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, Toledo could be seen tossing a gun and raising his hands in the moments before Stillman fired the fatal round.

In September 2024, Stillman testified to the police pension board that the shooting and its aftermath caused him to develop PTSD and made it impossible for him to work as a police officer, according to a transcript of the hearing filed in Cook County Circuit Court. He received the diagnosis in November 2022.

“Prior to the incident on March 29, 2021, I was a proud police officer,” Stillman said. “I served my country as a Marine and that made me resilient. The events on March 29, 2021 changed everything. The situation I was put in changed everything. My address was leaked. Threats were made. A 24-hour guard by the Department was put on my house for months. I left my home for months for security reasons.”

“The ability to move on is near impossible,” he added. “I did not choose this, nor do I want to live with PTSD. I served proudly and I hope to serve as a police officer again.”

The pension board initially awarded Stillman 50% of his CPD salary after he testified that, upon his return to the United States from Afghanistan, he was diagnosed with anxiety. Soon after, Stillman filed an administrative review complaint, asking a judge to increase those payments to 75% because the diagnosis was directly related to his performance of official police duties.

After the shooting, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability found Stillman violated three CPD rules during the pursuit and shooting and recommended the department fire him. Initially, CPD largely rejected COPA’s assessment and instead said Stillman should face a five-day suspension for failing to activate his body-worn camera in a timely way, records show.

“The recommended penalty of separation for Officer Stillman’s use of force — were the allegation to be sustained, which it should not — is excessive and inconsistent with previous administered penalties for excessive force,” former CPD Superintendent David Brown wrote in 2022. “According to the consent decree, discipline is to be consistently applied.”

That impasse triggered a process by which a single member of the Chicago Police Board would decide if Stillman would face an evidentiary hearing on the disciplinary charges. In 2022, former board President Ghian Foreman approved the evidentiary hearing.

Since then, though, CPD’s public-facing disciplinary proceedings have been largely curtailed by an ongoing legal fight between the city and Fraternal Order of Police. Stillman was one of the CPD officers who, amid the slowdown, opted to have his case decided out of public view by a third-party arbitrator. Those cases remain on hold for the foreseeable future.