Mayor Lori Lightfoot admitted Thursday that she knew about it a police raid that handcuffed Anjanette Young, an innocent woman without clothes. He called the “colossal event” of what happened in that house and ordered changes to make sure it didn’t happen again.
But late Friday, the Lightfoot office acknowledged that they were unable to deliver six videos to Anjanette Young’s attorneys that were requested earlier this year, calling it “accidental.”
Young told Good Morning America in an exclusive interview, “I wasn’t killed last night because God was covering for me.”
“It scared me to comply, as if they were just doing what they told me because I was afraid that if I did something or made any movement, they would shoot me,” he said. “They had guns pointed at me. I was scared of my life that night.”
The new incidence causes community groups and activists to continue their calls for major changes in the police department.
A group of pastors are pushing for transparency not only from the CPD, but also from the mayor.
“Who knew what was on the mayor’s staff? And what did the mayor know? And when did she know? And when they knew, what did they do with it?” said Bishop Larry Trotter, with the Church of the Holy Spirit.
The coalition of religious leaders, on the south and west sides, met with reporters after making a Zoom call at 3 p.m. with Mayor Lightfoot on Friday afternoon amid growing consequences.
They said they wanted discipline or firing for the agents involved in the raid, as well as for the leadership of the city’s law department. They also want public hearings of the case.
Some accuse Lightfoot of scapegoat and hypocrisy.
Twenty-four hours after claiming she only heard about Young’s case on Tuesday, Mayor Lightfoot admitted she didn’t remember the case until she saw the video for the first time this week and reviewed the emails.
“I don’t have any specific memories of it,” Lightfoot said. “It was in November when I probably focused on budget issues and getting our budget passed to the city council.”
WATCH: The mayor of Chicago gets excited as he discusses an incorrect raid video
Lightfoot said the city can’t let what happened to Young happen again in February 2019.
“So from the very night it happened, I knew I was living physically and physically to tell the story by the grace of God,” Young said.
“I have an obligation to do it wrong,” Lightfoot said Thursday, feeling emotional. “It’s been painful, painful and annoying.”
Young said she is disappointed with the mayor, who was involved in a reform platform.
“I was disappointed,” Young said. “I want you to come back to my church and tell me how you fix it.”
On Friday morning at WVON 1690 AM, Lightfoot said he should have done more last year.
“I wish and I did, and I should have delved into Ms. Young’s individual case,” the mayor said. “If I had done that at the time, I would have found out and asked to see the video, and we would have talked about it in November of the 20th (20) and not the 20th (20).”
He has now brought to the attention of his law department, stressing that there can be no other case like Young’s.
“I told them (all the pleas they make, all the arguments they make, they are ambassadors of our values), my values as mayor and our values as administration, and if they don’t get it. That’s a problem, and I want them out, ”Ligthfoot said.
“So I want accountability and not responsibility in the sense of the word responsibility [but] in the sense of action, concrete things will happen, ”Young said.
So do pastors like Ira Acree with Greater St. Biblical Church. John.
“We want the mayor to step up,” Acree said. “Contrition is a start, but contrition must be followed with a correction.”
Acree said that means bosses have to roll in town hall.
“Do the right thing … She can roll the ball with a single move, and that’s firing the corporation’s lawyer,” she added.
The bodycam video shows six seconds elapsing between the first knock on Young’s door and Chicago police officers using a battering ram to force their way into his apartment.
“I ran to my living room, I tried to grab something to cover myself and before I could do anything, there was the police,” Young said. “The room was dark, so I could only see lights and sights on with the guns pointed at me.”
WATCH: Bodycam video illuminates failed CPD raids
“According to Supreme Court jurisprudence, the reasonable amount to wait is 15 to 20 seconds,” lawyer Al Hofeld said. “What we find over and over again in these cases, even when it’s not a no-touch order, however they don’t call and advertise.”
When Young tried to convince CPD that they had the wrong address, an officer – with a search warrant in hand – seemed to realize that it was true quite quickly, even as police continued to prosecute his home.
Young was given the reason why the agents were in his apartment, wrong or not.
“If this was your mother, how would you like to be treated?” Said Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown. “You don’t form that in academia. We hire people who we think know good from evil. And if they don’t know good from evil, they don’t need to be police officers.”
While Supt. Brown on Thursday announced a review of all search warrants, saying the changes applied only to non-touch warrants, according to defense attorneys, represent a very small portion of all those signed by judges.
“We need to ensure that this never happens again with reforms, policy procedures and accountability for the mistake,” Brown said.
John Catanzara Jr., head of the Chicago Police Fraternal Order, said police are being atoned for.
“Oh, there’s no doubt he’s trying to divert the issue from the fact that he was part of a cover-up,” Catanzara said. “The same furious and delusional thing he did about Rahm Emanuel is the same that he is equally guilty of.”
INTERVIEW: Lightfoot promises to regain confidence after a failed CPD raid
The mayor said she wants to speak in person with Young and has addressed her lawyer.
But Young said Lightfoot’s attempt is too late.
“This has been going on for two years and before the body camera exposure this week, there was no interaction on the part of the mayor’s office or the same directly with me or my lawyer.” , said Young. “And so, years later, I’m sorry now. And, to be honest, that doesn’t seem so sincere to me until now.”
Young’s case and the city’s attempt to prevent the video from being released prompted the mayor to push for change and order the release of the entire video of her case.
In the future, victims seeking information about the case will get it quickly, including the video, the mayor said. The Law Department will review all pending cases of search warrants, he said. The video posting policy will be reviewed and the mayor wants the posting deadline to be shortened.
Assaulting on the wrong directions has cost the city a lot of money in legal expenses settlements and goodwill.
Hofeld currently represents ten customers who have been assaulted from their homes by police where no arrests were made or evidence confiscated. T
“The new policy is too cosmetic and needs to be further specified,” Hofeld said. “Evidence they confiscate will not be expelled from the criminal court, it will not be ruled out if they do not call and advertise. Therefore, they do not care … some kind of direct consequence for them personally, such as direct discipline.” “
The mayor on Thursday ordered a top-down review of the case.
“There’s a lot of confidence that has been broken,” Lightfoot said. “I know there is a lot of trust in me, which has been broken. And I have a responsibility to rebuild that trust of responsibility, to build that trust of our city, our police department and the whole government.”
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The mayor was asked if she is considering staff changes in the city’s law department, which fought against the release of the video. He said he is still reviewing what happened.
SEE: Political analyst Laura Washington discusses Lightfoot’s comments on the raid
“I don’t take it lightly that I’m sitting here right now … being able to say what happened to me, but I hug and relate a lot to Breonna Taylor,” Young said. “When it happened to him, I cried for days, but I was also very grateful and understood why I was sitting here watching his story when the same thing just happened to me. But I lived to tell the story.”
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