Anjanette Young was getting ready for bed after a long day at her job as a social worker when police used a battering ram to smash the front door of her Chicago apartment.
She was naked, alone and terrified in February 2019 when police drew their guns at her and rushed into Young’s home, yelling, “Hands up,” as they announced they were executing a search warrant for a man with a firearm.
Young, sobbing and screaming, pleaded with police dozens of times, “You’ve got the wrong house!” But the group of male officers handcuffed her for 40 minutes, including 10 minutes where she was not allowed to put clothes on, until they determined they were not at the right apartment and she did not commit a crime, according to recently filed government records.
“Oh, my God. This cannot be right!” she said, according to body-cam footage. “How can this be legal?”
ADVERTISING
Nearly three years later, the city’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability is calling for eight Chicago officers to be fired or suspended for their role in the botched home raid. A new report issued Wednesday raises nearly 100 allegations of misconduct against 15 officers involved in the raid.
The report found that officers failed to adhere to the “knock-and-announce guidance” that should have allowed Young to put on clothes before police entered her home — one of the many policies and laws violated during the botched raid. Several failed to activate their body cameras. None of the officers at the scene received more than a few hours of warrant-related training as a consequence, according to the report.
“Public trust begins with transparency, accountability and confidence in COPA to investigate allegations of police misconduct and determine if officers’ actions are in accordance with Department policy and training,” Andrea Kersten, the interim chief administrator for COPA, said in a news release.
Chicago officials tried to block video of police arresting naked woman in botched raid
The findings came the same week Chicago Police Supt. David Brown recommended to the city’s police board that Sgt. Alex Wolinski be fired for his role in overseeing the raid. A spokesperson with the Chicago Police Department declined to comment, and officials with the Fraternal Order of Police Chicago Lodge #7, the city’s officers union, did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday. John Catanzara, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, wrote on Facebook that Brown’s recommendation to dismiss Wolinski was a “disgusting display of ‘leadership.’”
Neither Young, 51, nor her attorney, Keenan Saulter, immediately responded to requests for comment. She told The Washington Post last December that she felt her life was in danger.
“I was afraid to do anything other than what they told me because I believed that they would shoot,” Young said.
The report could add to the growing attention surrounding the way some police raids at people’s home can go horribly wrong. The national focus on police raids has increased nearly two years after Louisville police officers burst into the home of Breonna Taylor, a Black 26-year-old emergency room technician. When Kenneth Walker, her boyfriend, woke up and fired his gun at the officers, police fired back, killing Taylor.
Since Taylor’s death, at least 28 states and 20 cities have passed some sort of restrictions on no-knock raids, while another 14 states and nine cities are currently considering other legislation, according to the reform group Campaign Zero. In Illinois, some restrictions are in place against no-knock raids.
Federal agents raided the wrong home, damaged an apartment and injured a cat, a lawsuit says
At around 7 p.m. on Feb. 21, 2019, Young had returned from her shift at the hospital and was undressed in her bedroom when she heard a loud, pounding noise at her front door. An informant reportedly gave police Young’s address, saying a man lived there who illegally possessed a gun, reported the Chicago Sun-Times.
Body-camera footage shows officers repeatedly striking her apartment door until they were able to burst through it. Young obtained the footage after a court forced the Chicago Police Department to turn it over as part of the lawsuit she later filed against police, according to KBBM.
“It was so traumatic to hear the thing that was hitting the door,” she told the station. “And it happened so fast, I didn’t have time to put on clothes.”
Police are heard announcing they have a warrant and repeatedly ask her to put her hands up, according to video. Young’s voice shrieked in terror as officers forcefully entered her home and as they searched the apartment, according to video, despite her telling them more than 40 times they had the wrong place.
“I’ve been living here for four years and nobody lives here but me,” she yelled. “I’m telling you this is wrong.”
After she had been handcuffed for 10 minutes, Young was given a blanket to cover herself up.
“There’s no one else who lives in this apartment?” an officer asked, according to video.
“No, no one else lives here,” Young replied, again telling police they had the wrong apartment.
More than 30 minutes into the raid, police finally removed the handcuffs and a sergeant is heard apologizing to Young.
“I do apologize for bothering you tonight,” the sergeant said. “Is there anything I can do right now?”
Young, still crying, replied, “Just leave and let me move on. This is so crazy.”
When Young watched the body-cam footage of the incident for the first time last year, she said she felt as if she was watching “a bad movie.”
“Those are no actors, I’m no actor,” she told KBBM. “This is my life and it happened to me.”
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) publicly apologized to Young for the incident and issued an executive order that placed restrictions on future police raids. But in June, Young said the mayor “betrayed” her for moving to dismiss the lawsuit she filed against police.
“I stand here, approximately 846 days of living the trauma that was caused to me, by the city, by the Chicago Police Department, and I call it reckless,” Young said at a news conference.
The COPA report alleges that Wolinski and Officer Alan Aporongao, who obtained the search warrant, did not present the search warrant to Young and “failed to take reasonable actions to protect her dignity” by having Young be handcuffed naked for at least 10 minutes. Wolinski also allegedly ignored an officer’s request to remove the handcuffs from Young and went against department policy by failing to notify a SWAT supervisor before entering her home, according to police documents.
The watchdog recommended Wolinski and Sgt. Cory Petracco, who was not at the raid, face discipline ranging from suspensions of at least a year to termination. The report said Aporongao should face a punishment ranging from a six-month suspension to separation from the police department. COPA recommended suspensions for five other officers, ranging from one to 60 days.
Nine of the 15 officers or sergeants involved in the raid were White and all but one of the 15 were male, the report says.
COPA said Young, who is Black, had an experience that “reveals problems far more pervasive than any individual incident of officer misconduct.”
“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 report reads.
