Mayor Lori Lightfoot admitted on Thursday that she knew about the failed police raid that left Anjenette Young, an innocent woman, handcuffed without clothes on. She called what happened in that house a “colossal failure” and has ordered changes to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Young told Good Morning America in an exclusive interview, “they didn’t kill me last night because God covered me.”
“I was afraid to stick to it, like I was just doing what they said to me, because I was afraid that if I did or did something, they would shoot me,” she said. ‘They had guns aimed at me. That night I feared for my life. ‘
Some accuse Lightfoot of scapegoating and hypocrisy.
Twenty-four hours after claiming that she only heard about the Young case on Tuesday, Mayor Lightfoot admitted she didn’t remember the case until she first saw the video this week and checked the emails.
“I have no specific memory of it,” said Lightfoot. “In November, I was probably focused on budget issues and getting our budget through the city council.”
WATCH: The Mayor of Chicago gets emotional when he talks about a wrong raid video
Lightfoot said the city cannot let what happened to Young in February 2019, when the social worker’s home was raided by police who had the wrong address. The Chicago woman was terrified and humiliated, handcuffed naked, before the police finally allowed her to hide.
“I have a duty to make that mistake,” Lightfoot said Thursday, feeling emotional. “It’s been painful, painful and shocking.”
Young said she is disappointed by the mayor, who was walking on a reform platform.
“She disappointed me,” Young said. “I want you to come back to my church and tell me how you’re going to fix this.”
At WVON 1690 AM Friday morning, Lightfoot said she should have done more last year.
“I wish and I, and I should have gone deeper into Mrs. Young’s individual case,” said the mayor. “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 this in November (20) 19, not December (20) 20.”
The bodycam video shows that six seconds pass between the first knock on Young’s door and Chicago police officers using a ram to forcibly break into her apartment.
“I ran into my living room, tried to get something to cover myself and before I could do anything, the police were in,” said Young. “The room was dark so I could only see lights and binoculars on, guns pointed at me.”
WATCH: Bodycam video sheds light on failed CPD raid
“According to Supreme Court case law, the reasonable amount to wait is 15 to 20 seconds,” said attorney Al Hofeld. “What we find over and over in these cases, even if it is not an order not to knock, they do not add up and announce.”
While Young tried to convince CPD that they had the wrong address, an officer – with a search warrant in hand – seemed to realize that this was true quite quickly, even as the police continued to treat her home.
Young got the reason why agents were in her apartment, the wrong one or not.
“If that was your mother, how would you like her to be treated?” Said Chicago Police Chief Superintendent David Brown. ‘You don’t learn that at the academy. We hire people who we think can tell right from wrong. And if they can’t tell right from wrong, they don’t have to be police officers. ‘
While Supt. Brown announced a review of all search warrants on Thursday, saying the changes only applied to no-knock warrants, which attorneys say represent a very small portion of all those signed by judges.
“We need to make sure this never happens again with reforms, policies and accountability for the mistake,” said Brown.
John Catanzara Jr., chief of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police, said the police are being scapegoated.
“Oh, there’s no question she’s trying to divert the matter from being part of a cover,” said Catanzara. “The same tirade and tirade she did about Rahm Emanuel is the same thing she’s just as guilty of.”
INTERVIEW: Lightfoot pledges to regain confidence after a failed CPD raid
The mayor said she wants to speak to Young in person and has contacted her lawyer.
But Young said Lightfoot’s attempt is too late.
“This has been going on for two years and before the bodycam exposure this week, there was no interaction from the mayor’s office or herself directly with me or my attorney,” said Young. And so years later, now she regrets it. And to be honest, I don’t think that’s so sincere at the moment. ‘
Young’s case and the city’s attempt to prevent the release of the video prompted the mayor to push for changes and order the release of all video in her case.
In the future, victims seeking information on cases will get it quickly, including video, the mayor said. The legal department will review all pending search cases, she said. The video release policy will be reviewed and the mayor wants the timeframe for release to be shortened.
Raiding wrong addresses has cost the city a lot of money in court fees and goodwill.
Hofeld currently represents 10 clients whose homes have been raided by the police, without arrests or confiscation of evidence. T.
“The new policy is too cosmetic and should be made more specific,” said Hofeld. “The evidence they confiscate won’t be thrown out in the criminal court, it won’t be ruled out if they don’t knock and announce. Therefore, they don’t care … some direct effect on them personally, like direct discipline. “
The mayor ordered on Thursday to review the case from top to bottom.
“A lot of trust has been broken,” said Lightfoot. “I know that there is a lot of trust in me, that has been violated. And I have a responsibility to build that trust, build that trust in our city, in our police and the entire government.”
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The mayor was asked if she is considering staff changes at the city’s legal department, which has contested the video’s release. She said she is still reviewing what happened.
WATCH: Political analyst Laura Washington discusses Lightfoot’s comments about the raid
“I don’t take it lightly that I’m sitting here right now … to be able to say what happened to me, but I embrace and attach great importance to Breonna Taylor,” said Young. “When it happened to her, I cried for days, but I was also very grateful and understood why I was sitting here looking at her story when the same thing happened to me. But I lived to tell the story.”
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