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- A Black family is suing the Chicago Police Department for what they say was a botched raid on their home.
- The lawsuit alleges officers pointed guns at two young girls, making them wet the bed.
- Several family members are showing PTSD symptoms after the botched raid, according to the lawsuit.
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A Black family filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the city of Chicago, alleging police officers pointed guns at their two young children in a botched raid on the wrong home.
The lawsuit alleges that in August 2019, officers charged into Steven Winters' home without identifying themselves and without a warrant. The officers immediately aimed guns at Winters, yelling for him to get on the ground.
After entering the home, an officer went down a hallway and into the bedroom of Winters' two young daughters, who are 4 and 9 years old, and pointed a flashlight at them, according to the lawsuit.
After that officer notified another officer that the occupants of the room were children, the other officer continued to point his firearm "directly at" the two young girls, the lawsuit alleges. The girls cried the entire time police were in their apartment and wet their beds during the encounter.
A third officer went to the bedroom of Winters' father-in-law and pointed a gun at him as he lay in bed, according to the lawsuit.
The family argues they followed all of the officers' orders once they entered the home, and one family member even tried to open the door as officers attempted to kick it in. The lawsuit accuses the officers of repeatedly ignoring the family's questions about what was going on.
The lawsuit also alleges that the officers falsified reports to cover up a raid on the wrong home. While officers say they saw a suspect from a local gas station, who reportedly had a gun, running into Winters' home, the lawsuit argues that officers' body camera footage does not show anyone else entering or exiting the building.
A spokesperson for the Chicago Police Department told Insider they would not comment on pending litigation.
Family members show PTSD symptoms after botched raid
Several members of the family now show symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, according to the lawsuit.
Winters' daughters have experienced the effects of lasting trauma, such as continued bed-wetting, crying easily, decreased appetite, nightmares involving guns, acting out, and anxiety around police officers.
According to the lawsuit, one of the girls "not only feels nervous and afraid whenever she sees a police officer, but she runs and hides behind relatives." Winters and his mother-in-law have also suffered the effects of trauma in the form of nightmares and difficulty sleeping.
The city of Chicago is aware that exposure to violence causes trauma in young children, the lawsuit argues, based on a Chicago Department of Public Health Program called Chicago Safe Start. The city cut funding for the program, which trained officers on the traumatic impact that violence can have on young children, in 2012 and failed to replace it with any other form of training.
The lawsuit also references several other cases of excessive use of force against children that it argues are a result of the city's failure to follow its own policies, such as a 2013 case where a rifle was pointed at a 3-year-old, and a 2015 case where a SWAT team pointed their rifles at three children aged 4, 6 and 11.