Seven-year-old Samari Boswell said she was t*errified the night of her younger brother TJ Boswell’s birthday party last month. She was expecting a party with cake and singing, but instead she and her family suddenly found themselves surrounded by p*olice with g*uns p*ointed at them.
With her mother Stephanie Bures by her side, the second grader recalled the s*cary Sunday night of Feb. 10, when a team of Chicago p*olice o*fficers r*aided her brother’s party carrying a b*attering ram and a s*ledgehammer, and with w*eapons drawn.
“They were saying F words and stuff,” Samari said. “It was h*orrible.”
Bures called what happened “h*orrible” and “unnecessary,” because the s*uspect who p*olice o*fficers were looking for hadn’t lived in the building for five years.
“As long as they continue to do that, there will never be trust between citizens and the Chicago P*olice Department,” said Al Hofeld Jr., the a*ttorney who represents the family.
Hofeld Jr. said it is another case of a “bad” s*earch w*arrant where p*olice did not do their homework.
“My l*aw firm took 30 seconds to do a person search and came up with
most current address, which is on 83rd street nowhere near the property,” Hofeld Jr. said.
This is the fourth s*earch w*arrant c*ase Hofeld Jr. has handled involving a*llegations that p*olice r*aided the wrong homes and p*ointed g*uns at i*nnocent people, including children. He said he plans to f*ile s*uit a*gainst the Chicago P*olice involving the Boswell children and other a*dults at the party, including an a*dult relative, Kiqiana Jackson.
“They manhandled me it took two o*fficers to get the c*uffs on me,” Jackson said.
Jackson said she was handc*uffed and taken outside into the cold after repeatedly asking p*olice to see the w*arrant.
“I wanted to know why were they there. Who are you? Show us a s*earch w*arrant,” Jackson said. “I asked for a s*earch w*arrant, I guess, one too many times. And [the o*fficer] was like, ‘A*rrest her.’”
Jackson, a public school employee who works with children with d*isabilities, said she was s*cared, got a*ngry, and repeatedly told o*fficers she had a right to see the s*earch w*arrant. She was denied, even though Chicago P*olice’s own s*earch w*arrant policy says w*arrants need to be turned over “promptly.”
The family said the w*arrant wasn’t turned over until after p*olice searched the home, b*roke a big-screen TV, and made a m*ess of their entire apartment.
Jackson also said they never k*nocked to announce they were p*olice and that they just came right in, t*raumatizing small children and a*dults.
Jackson was in tears as she described the r*aid.
“Then you see g*uns, you see g*uns p*ointing at us and it was like t*errifying,” Jackson said.
Samari said she was playing “Duck, Duck, Goose” right before the handg*uns were p*ointed at her.
“I thought they was going to sh*oot me, and my brother, and everybody else,” she said.
“We are people, we have rights, we deserve to be respected,” Jackson added.
CBS 2 I*nvestigators have been looking at Chicago P*olice wrong r*aids since August of 2018. To date, we have shown four c*ases, involving 11 children, where p*olice held i*nnocent families for long periods of time without showing them the w*arrants.
In each c*ase, the families say the warr*ants were not turned over until p*olice were leaving.
“They gave me the se*arch warr*ant after they t*ore up the house,” said Ebony Tate, who had her home wrongly r*aided in September of 2018.
In November of 2018, we asked Chicago P*olice S*upt. Eddie Johnson about o*fficers r*aiding the wrong homes.
“We try to provide the o*fficers all the training we can to ensure that type of thing doesn’t happen,” Johnson said.
We also uncovered children dealing with e*motional t*rauma after p*olice p*ointed g*uns at them.
Peter Mendez was 9 years old when he said c*ops pointed r*ifles at him and his younger brother during another r*aid with a w*arrant that named the people one floor above their apartment.
“Just the saddest moment,” said a crying Mendez recalling that night.
Jackson said during the Feb. 10 birthday party r*aid, o*fficers made i*nsulting comments to her when she told them she was a law-abiding citizen who works with special needs children at Chicago Public Schools.
“P*olice o*fficers are supposed to protect and serve, not talk to us like we’re nothing, like we’re beneath them,” Jackson said. “And it was really h*urtful, really hur*tful.”
So, how often do wrong r*aids happen? It seems to be a tightly guarded secret at Chicago P*olice Headquarters.
We asked Johnson last year if the Chicago Po*lice Department tracks wrong r*aids.
“Yeah, we look at it,” Jackson said.
But when asked if he could provide specific numbers, he said, “I don’t have it off the top of my head, but we do have it.”
Despite official Freedom of Information requests by CBS 2 made five months ago, no such records have been turned over.
Hofeld Jr., who also represents Mendez’s family in their c*ase, has been f*ighting to get all the body camera footage of the r*aid. But key portions still have not been turned over.
“One-hundred percent, we want all of them,” he said of the body camera videos. “Every one.”
Jackson and Samari’s family said they are not sure if o*fficers were even wearing body cameras, but they hope so.
They want to know how TJ’s birthday cake ended up outside its box and on the basement floor.
“There it was in the corner, on the floor, with the number 4 stuck in it,” Jackson said.
“I really think the j*udges have to be more careful and make sure that their o*fficers – the people who are here to protect and serve us – have done their homework.”
Update:
Chicago p*olice responded Monday to a CBS 2 inquiry in the following statement that reads, in part:
“In all c*ases, CPD makes every effort to ensure the validity and accuracy of all information that is used to apply for and e*xecute s*earch w*arrants. Oftentimes this information comes from community sources and despite the vetting of material through a c*riminal c*ourt and the methodical process to authenticate addresses, errors can occur and we take them very seriously.”
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