On March 29, 2021, when news broke that the Chicago Police had shot and killed 13-year old Adam Toledo, CNN reported the incident as “an armed confrontation.”  The Chicago Police Department released an image of a gun on twitter, and reported Officer Eric Stillman as the victim of “aggravated assault on a police officer,” by a “John Doe” “between the ages of 18-25.”   Long after multiple media outlets repeated the official police line verbatim, another story emerged.  Bodycam footage released three weeks later shows Adam Toledo dropping his gun, and raising his hands in the air, when Stillman shot him.  Stillman is now on administrative leave.  Why, though, were the media so quick to accept the Chicago Police Department’s version of events?  Danielle Kilgo is the John and Elizabeth Bates Cowles Professor of Journalism, Diversity and Equality at the University of Minnesota.