A team of heavily armed Chicago cops making a drug bust raided a 4-year-old's birthday party. realizing they had the wrong place only after smashing down the apartment door, handcuffing several adults and toppling over the birthday boy's cake, The Washington Post reprted.
It was the last thing that T.J. Jackson Jr.'s parents had expected when they invited close friends and relatives over to celebrate their son's fourth birthday. Everything was going smoothly until 17 plainclothesd officers carrying guns, crowbars, sledgehammers, and a battering ram barged into the apartment on Feb. 10. The adults were ordered to put their hands up while the four children cried in shock.
Nearly an hour into the raid the officers realizde their suspect, an alleged drug dealer with pending criminal charges, had not lived in the apartment for five years and had no relation to the family currently living there.
In response, the family filed a lawsuit in federal court this week. They allege that the police officers had used excessive force to gain entry into their home and violated their civil rights during the raid the night of T.J.'s party.
"Can you imagine sitting, playing games with other kids and guns pointed at them?" the boy's mother, Stephanie Bures, told WGN.
T.J.'s aunt, Kiqiana Jackson, recalled how she was tackled and handcuffed after trying to reach for her phone.
Bures said her children were left terrified by the wrongful raid. They can't sleep, have nightmares, and don't want to leave the house.
The incident has also angered other residents of the South Side neighborhood known as Auburn Gresham.
"Our children in Auburn Gresham face enough trauma every day just trying to grow up in Chicago," the Rev. Michael Pfleger said.
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