A family in Illinois filed a civil rights lawsuit against Chicago police officers who allegedly used excessive force when they raided their home last March 15 and pointed guns at the children, including handcuffing an 8-year-old boy.
On behalf of the Wilson family, Attorney Al Hofeld, Jr. filed the lawsuit after the incident, during which the officers entered the home of Dominique Wilson with a search warrant and sent her and her three children with ages 6,8 and 9 out of their home at gunpoint.
The family was freezing and drenched in rain while the search was ongoing, and Wilson’s son, 8-year-old Royal was handcuffed by the police for more than 30 minutes and suffered bruising. The mother and her three children, Hofeld said, remain emotionally traumatized with fear that they were going to be shot. They continually show symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, including nightmares.
“None of these children, none of these family members presented any threat whatsoever, real or apparent, at any time to any of the police officers on the scene. None of the family members resisted or fled. There was zero reason to point guns at them.” Hofeld mentioned in the press conference.
Royal Wilson, who was handcuffed during this traumatizing time told CBS Chicago that he had no idea what they were going to do to him and his siblings.
“They made me stand up straight and my hands behind my back, and they had them tight,” Royal told CBS Chicago. “My legs were shaking.”
Chicago police clarified to CBS Chicago that handcuffing children is not included in their protocol, and once the officers found out Royal’s age, that they removed the handcuffs immediately.
The statement released by the department said that the search warrant was for Wilson’s adult son that apparently had illegal guns inside the home. CBS Chicago was able to get a copy of the warrant, which stated that there was a confidential informant that the adult son had interacted with who gave this information.
“Due to the risk involved with a weapon that could penetrate body armor, the occupants of the residence followed verbal direction given over a public address system and exited the residence without needing to breach the door,” Chicago police said in a statement to CBS Chicago. They also said that the department “makes every effort to ensure the validity and accuracy of all information used to apply for an execute search warrants.”
No guns were found in the raid and Domonique’s eldest son never lived in that address, but only happened to sleep there the night before the search. Aside from handcuffing a minor, the police also broke the ceiling and confiscated cash.
The Wilson family is the fifth family that Hofeld has filed a lawsuit for regarding police pointing guns at minors of color. He also represents 15 children “who in total illustrate for Chicago the silent mass trauma of kids of color caused by the police department’s routine practice of pointing guns at children.”
The lawsuit alleges that the Chicago police has a ‘pattern of practice’ of using excessive force against children, and despite a Department of Justice finding regarding this, reforms have apparently not been made.
After the CBS Chicago reporting about how the police have traumatized children during raids, House Bill 51 was proposed, which recently passed unanimously and is now headed to the state house for further voting. House Bill 51 has an outline of steps that officers need to take when children are present in any police activity to ensure they psychological and physical safety.
“Nobody should get treated the way that me and my family and all these other families got treated,” Dominique Wilson told CBS Chicago. “These are children that are being traumatized — being woken up out of their sleep to guns pointed at them, thinking that they’re about to get shot down.”
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