Peter Mendez speaks about $2.5 million settlement after botched Chicago police raid
This week, the city of Chicago finalized a $2.5 million settlement with a family targeted by a botched police raid.
In 2017, officers pointed guns in the face of Peter Mendez, then 9 years old, after raiding the wrong home.
On Friday, Peter, now 17, spoke out for the first time about his family's settlement with the city.
"Kind of relieved; I can close this chapter of my life and move on," he said.
The Mendez family's legal fight centered on the trauma they endured after officers, acting on a tip from an informant, burst into their home with guns drawn. But they were in the wrong place, because they failed to verify the informant's information.
Peter said he's ready to move on from the fear and trauma he experienced the night a team of Chicago police officers wrongly raided his family's home.
Peter's tearful interview in 2018, in which he called that botched raid "just the saddest moment," put the spotlight on CPD's search warrant and raid policies, and the CBS News Chicago Investigators began exposing how that wrong raid wasn't the first, and wouldn't be the last.
Back then, the CBS News Chicago Investigators had no idea they would uncover a citywide systemic pattern of officers taking the word of informants without verifying the information and then raiding the homes of innocent people.
"People out there who care about law and order in the city, no one wants to be in a situation where they're minding their own business with their family at dinner time and the police break into their house and point guns at their kids," said Mendez family attorney Julia Rickert.
In Peter's case, he testified officers pointed guns at him and his parents, and handcuffed his father, Gilbert, face down on the ground in front of him.
This week, the City Council voted to end the Mendez family's civil rights lawsuit by agreeing to pay the family $2.5 million.
What message does the family's legal team think the lawsuit sends to the city?
"It says stop pointing guns at kids. Get your search warrant investigations right," attorney Al Hofeld Jr. said.
After the CBS News Chicago Investigators revealed what happened during raid on the Mendez family's home, other families started coming forward to say the same thing happened to them.
In 2019, Gov. JB Pritzker signed the Peter Mendez Act, requiring police to get training to deal with children during traumatic situations like a raid or seeing a parent handcuffed.
Peter was all smiles when the bill was signed into law. He said Friday he feels like he will always be a champion for other kids.
"I don't believe that children should have to go through the same thing I experienced; not at all, not in the slightest," he said.
His high-profile case impacted adults too, like Anjanette Young, who also came to CBS for help exposing her wrong raid after seeing Peter's story.
Together, the two wrong raid victims, along with CBS News Chicago's 7-year probe into wrong raids, have led to a completely overhauled police search warrant and raid policy.
"You gave a voice to the voiceless, you know, gave us the voice when we didn't feel like we had nothing," Peter said.
Botched raids by Chicago police have cost taxpayers millions of dollars in settlements.
In the Mendez family's case, in addition to the $2.5 million settlement, the city spent another $700,000 in legal fees to a private law firm to defend the officers in court before ultimately settling the case.