The Chicago Police Department is facing backlash for yet another botched raid after a newly uncovered disturbing video shows officers interrogating and pointing their weapons at innocent children.
Authorities not only entered the wrong home, they then questioned the kiddos without an adult present.
Local station CBS 2 obtained the footage as part of its ongoing investigation into wrong raids by the city’s police. The outlet has secured bodycam video from wrong raids in the past, but clips from two attacks on Krystal Archie’s home last year shows officers pointing their guns directly at her children.
“They’re handling heavy artillery,” Archie said of police. “It would’ve taken one slip of your finger and my children would not be here.”
According to CBS 2, the family’s home was raided a total of three times — once in February, the second time in April, and again in May of last year. The cops were reportedly on the hunt for a man Archie and her family say they do not know and has no history of ever living at the residence.
Video from the April 26 raid shows armed officers arriving at the home just after 8:30 p.m. and busting down the door with a battering ram. Inside, they find a frightened Savannah Archie, 14, who was watching her siblings Telia, 11, and JJ, 7, at the time.
The children immediately hit the floor as several officers rush in with their weapons drawn. One of them begins crying.
“I didn’t do nothing,” Savannah says through tears as she lies face down. “Please do not shoot me, please, please!”
“You’re not going to do this again!” she shouts, seemingly referencing the first raid in February, after which an officer orders her to “shut up.”
Recalling the events of that night, the 14-year-old said officers had guns to their faces throughout the raid. Her younger brother told CBS 2 that the cops also “had their finger on the trigger,” as if ready to shoot.
In the video, officers can be heard interrogating the children and pressing them about “where the stuff is at.” “So you stopped selling out of here? You stopped keeping it here?” one of them proceeds to ask the kids. Their mom Krystal was away at work when the cops barged in, according to the station.
The family, like numerous others, has since filed a federal lawsuit against the city after police wrongfully raided their homes.
Resident Stephanie Bures took legal action after over a dozen officers ransacked her South Side home, threatening and terrorizing party-goers there to celebrate her son’s 4th birthday last March. It was later revealed the suspect police were looking for hadn’t lived there in years.
In a similar incident, Domonique Wilson said Chicago officers ordered her and her children out of their home and even handcuffed her 8-year-old son.
“They made me stand up straight and [put] my hands just behind my back. And they had them tight,” the boy, Royal Smart, explained. “I was worried about my sister most, because she’s only 6 years old.”
CBS 2 has been looking into CPD’s botched raids for about 18 months now, however, its investigations have resulted in few answers after the police agency reportedly blocked access to public records and declined Freedom of Information Act requests.
The department says it has, however, taken recent steps to address its issue with wrong raids, starting with an overhaul of its search warrant policy. Key changes include officer training on how to handle raids where juveniles may be present, the requirement that at least two police body cams are activated and remain on for the entirety of the search. Those who fail to comply face disciplinary action from the department.
Atlanta Black Star reached out to the Chicago Police Department for comment and is awaiting a response.
Watch more in the video below.
