Bodycam video released of raid at center of civil rights lawsuit filed against Bellwood Police Department

ByABC7 Chicago Digital Team WLS logo
Saturday, April 17, 2021
Civil rights lawsuit filed against Bellwood Police Department over raid
Lawyers say they were responding to a 911 call to the house that may have been a prank call about a fake emergency.

BELLWOOD, Ill. (WLS) -- Bodycam video from the Bellwood Police Department of a raid last month is the subject of a civil rights lawsuit.

ABC7 obtained that body camera video that shows police going through George Soto's home at 1:30 a.m. on March 17.

RELATED: Bellwood police sued over raid on home that may have been swatting

It's unclear who or what the police were looking for.

"How they treated my wife, grandchildren, like we were criminals like we were animals. Shame on them," said Soto said in March.

"I kept begging them to tell us what we did wrong," his wife Margarita added.

They were apparently responding to a 911 call to the house that attorneys say may have been a prank call about a fake emergency at the home, a relatively new phenomenon known as swatting.

Soto and his family are suing the Bellwood Police Department following the incident.

ABC7 reached out to the village when the raid happened but did not get a response to the allegations.