Chicago woman in botched raid shares story, Lightfoot apologizes
CHICAGO - New information is developing about a botched raid that left a Chicago woman naked, handcuffed and pleading with officers.
On Wednesday, Mayor Lightfoot blasted her own staff for trying to bury the video.
“This was so terrifying - an ordeal that two years later, I’m still dealing with,” said victim, Anjanette Young.
Young, 50, is a hospital social worker and was undressing for bed when a dozen Chicago police officers armed with a search warrant, smashed through her front door in February 2019.
The officers handcuffed Young, who was naked and terrified, as they searched her home for a suspect, who actually lived several houses away.
“Police officers yelling at me, pointing guns at me, making me stand in front of them naked, putting handcuffs on me while I was naked, no one should have to experience that,” said Young.
Young said to add insult to injury, lawyers for the city went to federal court on Monday to try to stop CBS 2 from broadcasting the video as part of a series on botched police raids.
The judge disagreed and the story aired, but Young’s attorney calls it an attempted cover-up.
“How can you justify that your response is, 'Don’t tell the public.' That is unacceptable,” said Keenan Saulter, Young’s attorney.
“I was completely and totally appalled. As a human being, as a Black woman and as a parent,” Mayor Lightfoot said about the raid.
Mayor Lightfoot, visibly angry during a news conference on Wednesday, said she didn’t know about the raid that happened before she took office until after the story aired. She slammed her own staff for not telling her and trying to bury the video.
“I want to tell Miss Young again that I am deeply sorry and troubled that her home was invaded and that she had to face the humiliation and trauma that she suffered,” said Lightfoot.
Young’s lawyer says they expect to file a lawsuit against the city in the next few days. A group of eight progressive Alderman are now calling for hearings to discuss the ongoing problem of bad police raids.