Grandmother testifies in Day 2 of wrongful raid civil rights trial against Chicago police
It was an emotional day of testimony on Tuesday in the trial of a wrongful Chicago Police raid.
The family that filed a civil rights lawsuit took the stand on the second day of the trial.
Their grandmother broke down in tears, remembering the way she and her grandchildren were treated during the raid on their home.
That grandmother's name is Cynthia Eason. She testified that officers pointed guns at her and her entire family, calling that day the most terrifying night of her life.
Eason pointed to her temple as she described how she, her daughter, and four grandchildren were treated by Chicago Police officers when they wrongly raided her family's home in 2018.
"He put his gun here," she told the jury, demonstrating how she says one officer aimed the gun at her face.
"Is this real?" she remembered asking the officer. "And he said, 'Yes.'"
She also broke down in tears when she said she witnessed officers pointing guns at her grandchildren and her daughter, Ebony Tate.
"I thought they were going to shoot her," she said.
The family's attorney started opening statements, arguing that this raid on an innocent family is systemic within CPD, as part of a pattern of officers using excessive force against children.
The officers who conducted the raid watched in court as their attorney denied misconduct and said "not a single officer pointed a gun" at anyone in the home.
On the stand later, Eason wept as she described how officers made her stand outside in a T-shirt and underwear. She said it took 30 minutes before a paramedic on scene brought a power-blue medical sheet for her to cover up with. She saved the sheet, and it was draped over the witness stand.
CBS Chicago first exposed this raid back in 2018, and investigations found officers were in the wrong house and did not properly vet information from a paid informant.
The raid happened before body cameras were fully in place, so it'll be the family's word against the officers, who are also expected to testify in the trial.