Chicago cops apologizing for raiding the wrong home — again

Illinois cops armed with a search warrant raided an apartment occupied by a mother and her three children at about 2 p.m. Tuesday, WBBM-TV reported.

The officers damaged the front door of the home, ripped through the family's things and handcuffed three people inside the apartment on Chicago's South Side.

But then the cops realized they were at the wrong home. The warrant had the wrong address.

What happened?

Terricky Pender and her three children were at home when the police broke open the front door of the family's Fuller neighborhood apartment.

“I just heard a big boom, breaking straight through the door and my little brother, he had ran to the back,” said Trezelle Island, Pender's son, who told WBBM he thought it was a robber breaking in.

Officers stormed in and ordered Trezelle and his younger brother to get on the floor.

“They told me and him to go to the back; go back and lay down on the ground. Put handcuffs on the back, and then told us don’t move, and put their guns up,” Trezelle said.

They handcuffed Pender's daughter, Janelle Island, too.

“When they told me to come out, they told me to put my hands behind my back and put handcuffs on me,” Janelle said.

Once the authorities realized they were in the wrong home, they released the children and apologized for their mistake. But the family's apartment door is still not repaired.

What did Chicago police say?

"CPD takes this very seriously and the department is investigating the circumstances surrounding the raid, including the accuracy and reliability of information provided to officers," a police spokesman told TheBlaze. "We deeply regret the hardship caused to homeowners and have expedited the claims process to properly secure the home."

“We conduct hundreds of raids every week, and we depend on different avenues in order to obtain that information. So when we do hit a wrong house, listen, that’s not a good thing,” Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said Wednesday morning, WBBM reported. “We just have to do better at ensuring that where we’re getting that information from is legitimate, and we just have to do a better job of ensuring that we are hitting the right place.”

What about the door?

The police said they would get the door repaired, but the spokesman didn't specify a time frame.

"[T]he city is in contact with the property owner regarding the repair of the door," the spokesperson told TheBlaze in an email.

Has this happened before?

It's the fourth time in six months that Chicago police have made this sort of mistake, WBBM reported.

“I know it happened to somebody, but I didn’t know it was the fourth time,” Pender said. “The only thing I want them to do is come and fix my door right about now.”