A federal civil rights lawsuit has been filed on behalf of Chicago woman 38-year-old Krystal Archie and her three children, who say Chicago police officers wrongly raided their home three times this year in just four months.
Each time, narcotics officers dressed in SWAT gear barged in, ordering her children to the ground with guns pointed at their heads.
Narcotics officers for the Chicago Police Department were looking for suspects named “Lord,” “Peanut” and “Lord T.” based on information from a confidential informant.
But the lawyer for Archie and her family says the information was bunk and what really happened was officers raided the wrong home and pointed guns at her children, according to attorney Al Hofeld Jr. who filed the suit on July 19 last week.
Hofeld alleges the mistaken raids occurred in February, April and May of this year at the apartment unit where the family lives.
Officers conducted raids using “unverified information on bad search warrants,” the lawsuit says.
During one raid, Archie’s eldest daughter was babysitting her younger siblings when police broke in ordering the children to “lie face down on the floor” with assault rifles pointed at their heads.
While the children were on the ground, one officer put his foot in the middle of her 14-year-old daughter’s back, pointing his gun at her face and head.
He then began cuffing her and only stopped “when she pleaded that she was only 14-years-old,” according to NBC Chicago.
In another raid, Archie’s 8-year-old son JJ Jackson was playing in his room when he heard a loud boom before officers burst into his family’s first-floor apartment with guns drawn on them.
“They had their finger on the trigger,” 8-year-old J.J. recalled.
Officers arrived to conduct a search warrant but instead ended up pointing guns at J.J.’s 11-year-old sister, Telia, who also said police pointed guns at them.
“I was afraid and confused,” she recalled in an interview with CBS in Chicago.
“I thought something was going to happen to him, and that I wouldn’t see him after,” she said, referring to her younger brother.
After three raids on her home, Archie was never charged, none of her children were ever charged with crimes, and no contraband was ever found inside of the apartment.
The officer actions during the raids “were not just the product of avoidable mistakes and sloppy police work. They displayed force that was excessive, unnecessary, unreasonable, and illegal,” Hofeld said during a press conference after filing the lawsuit.
“We all now have to now look over our shoulders, and who do we look for to protect us? We can’t see them [the police] in that light anymore,” Archie said Friday.
Read the federal civil rights lawsuit filed by Archie’s attorney below.
