A police sergeant in Chicago was fired more than four years after he went to the wrong address during a raid and handcuffed a terrified and nude Black woman inside her home.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago Police Board ousted Sgt. Alex Wolinksi in a 5-3 vote on June 15.
Wolinksi was overseeing several officers from the Chicago Police Department when they mistakenly burst into the home of Anjanette Young in Chicago back in 2019 and handcuffed the social worker while she was undressed.
In the 31-page ruling, the Chicago Police Board voted that Wolinksi violated multiple departmental rules including “disrespect to or maltreatment of any person,” as well as a “failure of leadership.”
“Though it was clear that the officers were not at the residence of the intended target,” read the ruling. “Wolinski nonetheless allowed Ms. Young to remain naked and handcuffed for an extended period of time — over 10 minutes.”
Body camera footage of the CPD’s blunder captured several male police officers bursting into Young’s home with their guns drawn as the naked then 50-year-old was preparing for bed.
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Young was handcuffed as she repeatedly told the men they were in the wrong place and that she lived alone. Ten minutes later, Young was allowed to get dressed after a female officer arrived on the scene and escorted her to her bedroom.
However, she was handcuffed again after getting dressed despite the officers realizing they’d raided the wrong residence.
The officers had obtained a search warrant for Young’s apartment based on a tip from an informant but failed to confirm the address was connected to their case. The actual suspect the CPD was looking for wore an electronic tracking device and was on house arrest. The 23-year-old man lived next door to Young, but they were not connected.
Young told the officers that they were in the wrong home some 43 times. A blanket was put over Young to cover her. However, because she was in handcuffs, it kept falling off.
“It’s one of those moments where I felt I could have died that night,” recalled Young. “If I would have made one wrong move, it felt like they would have shot me. I truly believe they would have shot me.”
According to the ruling, Wolinski was not present during the door breach, which was a mistake on his part as a leader. The ruling also mentions that he failed to take control of the situation as expected from a leader.
Additionally, Wolinksi did not provide Young with the warrant when she initially requested to see it, which could have helped to calm her down. The ruling suggests that Wolinksi ignored her repeated pleas to see the search warrant.
In contrast, the dissenting members of the police board, Steven Block, Nanette Doorley, and Andreas Safakas, who voted against firing Wolinski, offered a rationale for why the officer lost control of the situation.
They argue that the scene was chaotic from the beginning and quickly escalated. They acknowledge that Wolinski attempted to deescalate the situation, but his skills were inadequate. They consider these failures to be significant and emphasize that Young was the one who suffered the consequences.
The dissenting members propose a “lengthy” suspension without pay as a more suitable form of discipline.
However, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability said that the way Young was treated is indicative of a bigger problem within the CPD.
“The intrusion against her person and the invasion of her home implicate other concerns, including lack of adequate training and supervision surrounding the Department’s use of search warrants and the disproportionate impact of police actions on people of color,” the CPA report states.
Young provided a statement after learning that Wolinski had been terminated and showed compassion for his family, something she was not given during the botched raid.
“While my heart goes out to his family because they now suffer the consequences of his abhorrent misconduct,” she said. “I wish all eight members of the Chicago Police Board would have recognized the need and urgency for Sergeant Wolinski’s removal.”
“Although this event does not atone for the traumatic injustice I faced, knowing that members of the Chicago Police Board are starting to see how carelessly some Officers engage with the community gives me a little bit of peace,” she added.
No other officers have been charged in connection with the raid.
Young sued the city of Chicago following the raid and was unanimously awarded $2.9 million by the Chicago City Council in 2021.
The city tried to block the release of the video, but Young was later able to obtain it via her lawsuit. Although former Superintendent David Brown recommending Wolinski be fired back in November 2021, it wasn’t until Thursday’s ruling that he was terminated in the police board vote.
