Nearly eight years after a tragic misstep by the Chicago Police Department, the city has settled a lawsuit with the Mendez family for $2.5 million.
This settlement comes after officers mistakenly forced their way into the wrong apartment in McKinley Park, directly confronting two young children.
Despite the financial resolution, the city has neither admitted fault nor offered an apology.
The total costs incurred by the city, including legal defenses for the officers involved, amounted to an additional $712,000, according to attorney Al Hofeld Jr., who represented the family.
The settlement was approved by the city Finance Committee on Monday, but for the Mendez family, the emotional scars remain.
“It doesn’t go away, by the way,” said Gilbert Mendez, reflecting on the lasting fear and anxiety that his family continues to experience since the raid.
On November 7, 2017, Chicago police officers executed a search warrant but did so without knocking or announcing their presence.
They broke down the door to the Mendez residence, where Gilbert’s sons, aged 5 and 9 at the time, were playing just a few feet away.
During the raid, which lasted nearly 90 minutes, officers pointed guns and an assault rifle at Gilbert, his wife, and their children before ordering them to lie on the floor.
The police had a warrant targeting an apartment on the second floor, based on information alleging that it was occupied by individuals involved in drug activities.
However, the actual suspects lived in a third-floor apartment, a detail that was missed during the operation.
In body camera footage obtained during the trial, the family’s son, Peter, is heard pleading with officers not to shoot his father as they shouted commands filled with expletives to his parents.
In a stark admission of error, one officer can be heard acknowledging they were in the “wrong f****** apartment,” yet the search persisted for several additional minutes.
The officers left the Mendez home after nearly two hours, without providing any explanation or apology.
The Mendez family only learned of the raid’s mistaken identity after Gilbert’s wife spotted the warrant, which the officers had attempted to take with them upon leaving.
The targets of the search warrant were described as a 29-year-old Black man and a 27-year-old Black woman, while Gilbert, a Hispanic man in his 50s, and his wife, a Native American woman in her 40s, were entirely unrelated to the case.
Compounding the trauma, the family reported that their children were diagnosed with PTSD and suffered recurring nightmares stemming from the encounter with police.
Determined to provide some stability for his children, Gilbert has since moved the family to a new home, where their rooms are arranged close together to ease anxiety.
They have also invested in a security system, and Gilbert routinely checks all locks obsessively.
“This is the organization that claims to protect and serve the public,” Peter, now 17, remarked at a news conference.
“But in reality, they did this to my family. It has taken a toll. … It’s just difficult.”
Despite the distressing incident, none of the officers involved faced disciplinary action.
Recommendations from the Chicago Police Department and the Civilian Office of Police Accountability called for suspensions, but these were ultimately receded during internal proceedings in 2022.
However, the aftermath of the incident did lead to legislative change. The Peter Mendez Act became state law in 2019, mandating police officers to receive training on the trauma children experience and appropriate deescalation tactics when minors are involved.
“It gave me some peace of mind knowing stuff is going to change,” Peter expressed regarding the new regulations.
Since then, the police department has made strides in altering its protocols, including requiring a deputy chief’s approval for home searches and mandating the use of body cameras during raids.
Reports indicate that the number of search warrants executed has decreased by 25% from 2019 to 2024.
Despite these modifications, the Chicago Police Department has yet to prohibit the pointing of weapons at unarmed children, although a proposal is currently under review that would address this issue.
This proposal would also enforce a policy requiring officers to give residents at least 30 seconds to respond when conducting searches.
In cases where no-knock warrants are deemed necessary, only SWAT officers would be permitted to carry them out, and only with explicit bureau chief approval.
Hofeld expressed a poignant reminder at the press conference, stating, “They cannot unexperience that, and no amount of money could heal their wounds. Stop pointing guns at kids and get your search warrant investigation right.”
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