Chicago mayor apologizes amid backlash over city's efforts to block release of bodycam video showing botched raid that ended with cops handcuffing an innocent naked black social worker
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has come under fire after it emerged this week that the city's lawyers had attempted to block the release of body camera footage that showed police officers mistakenly raiding the home of an innocent social worker, leaving her handcuffed in the nude.
Lightfoot on Wednesday apologized to the woman, 50-year-old Anjanette Young, for the botched February 2019 raid, and also for the City of Chicago's Law Department's efforts to prevent a local station from airing video of the incident.
'I am deeply sorry and troubled that her home was invaded and that she had to face the humiliation and trauma that she suffered. That is just not right,' Lightfoot said. 'It simply should not have happened. And I will make sure that there is full accountability for what took place.'
A civilian review board is investigating the incident at Young's home, of which Chicago's WBBM-TV obtained body camera footage. Earlier this week Lightfoot's administration went to federal court and filed a motion seeking to stop the station from showing the footage, but was denied.
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Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Wednesday apologized to an innocent woman for a misguided police raid on her apartment in 2019, and for the city's efforts to block the release of body camera footage from the incident
Distressing police bodycamera footage shows the moment Chicago cops broke into the home of social worker Anjanette Young and handcuffed her in the nude on February 21, 2019, only to later realize they raided the wrong house
'Filing a motion against a media outlet to prevent something from being published is something that should rarely, if ever, happen. This is not how we operate,' Lightfoot said. 'And had I been advised that this was in the works, I would have stopped it in its tracks. This is not how we operate. Period.'
The mayor said she was 'blindsided' by the city lawyers' efforts to block the release of the footage from the raid, which she said she only learned about on Tuesday.
'I was completely and totally appalled as a human being, as a black woman and as a parent,' Lightfoot told reporters. 'Ms Young's dignity, that she and all of us deserve, was taken from us and this is simply inexcusable.'
Lightfoot initially tried to distance herself from the incident, saying it happened before she took office in May 2019 and blaming the Civilian Office of Police Accountability for not releasing the video earlier. COPA's investigation, which could include recommendations for disciplining officers, is ongoing.
But the disturbing video and the city's attempts to thwart its release prompted intense criticism, including from Cook County State Attorney Kim Foxx.
'The audacity that the city calculated its embarrassment over the release of the video, is a clear violation of Ms. Young’s body and autonomy,' Foxx tweeted on Wednesday. 'This was a complete and utter dismissal of her humanity. Her humanity was, literally, stripped from her.'
Cook County State Attorney Kim Foxx took to Twitter on Wednesday to slam the City of Chicago for its efforts to block the video's release
Foxx continued: 'this is what’s wrong with our criminal justice system, this is why there is a lack of trust. I hope that Ms. Young is somehow able to move beyond this with the dignity that she was deprived.'
A Chicago aldermen called for more hearings on the 'cover-up of a wrongful police raid,' and black state legislators who called it an 'act of racism, gendered violence and yet another violation of a Black woman´s dignity and safety.'
In the video, officers break down Young's door and she can be repeatedly heard screaming, 'You've got the wrong house!' Young said she didn't have time to dress before several officers stormed into her apartment.
Lightfoot said concerns about officers searching the wrong homes has led to changes in search warrant protocol. She said the city would change its policies to make it easier to release body camera video in similar circumstances.
Young had returned home from her shift at a hospital and was undressed in her bedroom when a group of officers broke down her door with a battering ram and crowbar. They handcuffed her and ordered her to stand in the living room even as she had no clothes on
Young obtained the video as part of a lawsuit against the city, which she filed after the Chicago Police Department reportedly denied her Freedom of Information request in November 2019, although Lightfoot argued that her request was filed in February 2020.
Lightfoot pushed back against reported claims that the city had refused to hand over the video to Young, saying that she was given a copy of the recording in March of this year in response to her request.
The city had also filed a request to have Young sanctioned for allegedly violating a confidentiality order. Lightfoot said Wednesday that Young should not be punished and she is a victim.
Young said Wednesday that she is a private person so having the video in the public sphere is difficult but necessary.
'It’s one of those moments where I felt I could have died that night. Like if I would have made one wrong move, it felt like they would have shot me. I truly believe they would have shot me,' Young tearfully said. She has filed a lawsuit against the police following the botched raid
'I want accountability,' Young told reporters in Chicago. 'I don't need social media followers, I don't need that type of stuff. Accountability.'
Young's treatment has drawn parallels with the shooting of Breonna Taylor by police in March, after police forcibly entered her house in a drugs investigation focused on Taylor's ex-boyfriend.
Taylor's case became a rallying cry in Black Lives Matter protests that swept the United States and beyond this year.
'If I made one wrong move I felt like they would have shot me,' said a teary-eyed Young, who wore a T-shirt with a picture Taylor and the words 'I am her.'
The incident began unfolding on February 21, 2019, when Young, a social worker, had returned home from her shift at a hospital and was undressed in her bedroom when a group of officers, with at least nine body cameras, broke down her door with a battering ram and crowbar.
The officers were looking for a 23-year-old suspect who allegedly had a gun, but they didn't verify the address before conducting the search warrant. That suspect lived in the unit next door to Young.
Video footage was released publicly for the first time this week and Young cried as she watched it back and revealed she's still traumatized.
'It’s one of those moments where I felt I could have died that night. Like if I would have made one wrong move, it felt like they would have shot me. I truly believe they would have shot me,' Young tearfully said in an interview with CBS 2 Chicago.
A view of officers breaking down Young's front door with a battery ram and crow bar above
Young had filed a Freedom of Information ACT request for the video to show the public. A court forced Chicago police to turn over the footage as a part of Young’s lawsuit against the department.
'I feel like they didn’t want us to have this video because they knew how bad it was. They knew they had done something wrong. They knew that the way they treated me was not right,' Young said.
In the disturbing footage Young appeared shocked when the officers burst into her home after tearing down the door and shouted 'Police search warrant! and 'Hands up, hands up!'
'It was so traumatic to hear the thing that was hitting the door. And it happened so fast, I didn’t have time to put on clothes,' Young said.
In the clip Young became distressed as she was forced to stand in the living room naked and handcuffed as officers swarmed her apartment.
She yelled at least 43 times 'You've got the wrong house!'
'What is going on? There’s nobody else here, I live alone. I mean, what is going on here? You’ve got the wrong house. I live alone,' she shouted at one point of the clip.
Officers tried to cover Young up by putting a hoodie on her and a blanket over her shoulders, but because she was handcuffed, they kept slipping off her shoulders leaving her exposed
Officers asked her if she knew the armed suspect they were looking for and she said, 'I don't know who that person is.' The suspect turned out to be her neighbor and had no connection to her
Young was forced to stand uncomfortably handcuffed and partially naked in front of the group of officers as they peppered her with questions in the botched raid
She told the officers a total of 43 times that they had raided the wrong address
At first an officer tried to put a hoodie sweater on her but it kept falling off. Then another officer ultimately threw a blanket over her shoulders but because she was handcuffed the blanket slipped off her shoulders, leaving her exposed again.
'I'm just standing there, terrified, humiliated, not even understanding why in that moment this is happening to me,' she said reflecting on the incident.
In the clip she begged officers to let her get dressed and she told them she believed they had bad information. She had lived in the home alone for the past four years.
'Oh my God, this cannot be right. How is this legal,' she wailed.
It turned out that police had visited her home acting on a bad tip.
A day before the raid a confidential informant told the lead officer on the raid that he recently saw a 23-year-old man who was a known felon armed with a gun and ammunition. They gave the faulty address to police and cops didn’t independently verify if the address was correct.
It turned out the suspect lived in the unit next door to Young and had no connection to her whatsoever.
The suspect was awaiting trial on home confinement and was wearing an electronic monitoring device, meaning cops could have easily tracked his exact location.
In one portion of the footage two officers seated in a squad car discuss the approval of the search warrant. One officer says that warrant wasn't initially approved
A second officer asked the first officer, 'What does that mean?'
The first officer said that a person must have made a mistake in making the warrant
In one portion of the footage two officers seated in a squad car discuss the approval of the search warrant.
'It wasn’t initially approved or some cr**,' one officer said.
'What does that mean?' the second officer asked.
'I have no idea. I mean, they told him it was approved, then I guess that person messed up on their end,' the first officer said.
'That piece of paper search gives them the right to, you know, that says you can do X, Y, Z based on what’s on that paper. So if you get it wrong, you are taking 100 percent control of someone else’s life and treating them in a bad way,' Young said.
Eventually the officers let Young put on clothes and said 'We believe your story'
Eventually the officers let Young put on clothes and said 'We believe your story.' Cops then left and tried to fix the badly damaged front door but couldn’t.
'If this had been a young woman in Lincoln Park by herself… a young white woman let’s be frank, if the reaction would have been the same. I don’t think it would have been…They viewed Ms. Young as less than human,' her attorney Keenan Saulter said to CBS 2 Chicago.
'The work is warranted – they need to do the work. But they need to do it right. They can’t just callously do it and leave people’s lives in ruins because they got it wrong,' Young said.
On Tuesday, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability said they're investigating the footage and incident.
They didn't launch the investigation until nine months after the incident when it was first reported by CBS2. Last month COPA said it 'is still in the process of serving allegations and conducting all necessary officer interviews.'
Neither the police department nor COPA would comment on the investigation.
'The work is warranted – they need to do the work. But they need to do it right. They can’t just callously do it and leave people’s lives in ruins because they got it wrong,' Young said. In her interview she wore a shirt bearing the face of Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old EMT from Louisville, Kentucky who was shot dead during a botched police drug raid. Just as with Young's case, the Louisville police were searching for a suspect who did not live in Taylor's home
COPA spokesman Ephraim Eaddy would only say that under city policy the only videos it will release before an investigation is complete are those in which an officer has fired a weapon or in incidents when there is great bodily injury.
That policy clearly bothered Mayor Lightfoot.
'I want to be careful here because I respect the independence of COPA, but give me a break that we didn't put this video out in all this time. It's ridiculous, it really is,' she said.