Chicago Police Broke Into Home, Pointed Guns at Black Girls: Suit

CHICAGO — A Chicago police officer pointed a shotgun at two young Black girls after cops broke down the door of a residence during a botched raid of a family’s home in 2019, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court on Tuesday.

The lawsuit indicates that 4-year-old Reshyla Winters and her 9-year-old sister, Sevayla, were sleeping when a Chicago police officer burst into their room, pointed a flashlight at the girls before he pointed a gun at the children, the lawsuit said. The incident, which took place on Aug. 7, 2019, also involved Chicago police entering the home without a warrant and officers pointing weapons at Steven Winters, the girls’ father and grandfather.

The lawsuit, which is the latest involving Chicago police and people of color, states that an officer knelt on the back of Steven Winters and held a gun to his head while another officer entered the girls’ room and pointed a shotgun at them. The lawsuit said that another officer entered the room of the girls’ grandfather and pointed a gun at him while he was sleeping.

The raid caused “lasting trauma” for the girls and the lawsuit said that the officer entering the girls to be afraid and wet their beds. After the raid, the girls continued to wet their beds, had trouble sleeping, experienced a decreased appetite and go into fits of crying, the lawsuit said.

According to the lawsuit, police entered the wrong home after receiving a vague description of a suspect who reportedly displayed a gun at a nearby gas station. No gun was ever found in the home that the officers entered, the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit asserts that the officers tried to cover up their mistake by claiming in their reports that they heard and saw the suspect they were chasing run into the apartment and then out the back — statements that were proven false by the bodycam footage, which the family’s attorney, Al Hofeld Jr., obtained through an open records request.

Hofeld, Jr. did not immediately return an email to Patch on Wednesday seeking comment.

The lawsuit is the latest involving Black families who have sued the Chicago Police Department over botched raids of homes. Last year, another Chicago woman — Anjanette Young – sued the city over a 2019 raid in which Young said she was handcuffed while naked while police officers searched her home.

Police had the wrong address in that case and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was criticized after evidence showed she knew about the raid in 2019 and not in 2020 as she said. Lightfoot later apologized to the social worker and expressed anger in the city's handling of the case. The mayor said at the time she was appalled by the video of the raid, which was shown by a Chicago television station.

In 2016, an Associated Press analysis found that the city had paid $662 million for judgments, settlements and outside legal fees, ABC News reported.