JOLIET, Ill. — The Joliet Police Department is at the center of a civil rights lawsuit after a family accused them of wrongfully raiding their home.

According to a press release from the law firm representing the family, a 62-year-old woman with a physical disability, Adela Carrasco, and her four grandchildren, ages 10-14, opened their front door at 228 Comstock Street in the early morning hours of Nov. 2, 2021, to a group of armed law enforcement officers executing an arrest warrant for Elliot Reyes, who allegedly lived next door to them.

“I asked them to show me a warrant,” Carrasco told WGN News Thursday. “They didn’t show me nothing. They just pushed me aside and went in and I’m screaming the whole time to put down the guns because I’m scared they’re going to shoot my grandkids.”

  • Adela Carrasco’s four grandchildren.
  • Carrasco’s grandchildren on Halloween.
  • Carrasco and one of her grandchildren.
  • A family picture of the Carrascos.

According to Zach Hofeld, an attorney representing the family, the officers were investigating the shooting deaths of two 22-year-olds at a Halloween party that happened two days earlier when they arrived on Carrasco’s front porch and shouted they had an arrest warrant for Reyes, but information later revealed that “Elian J. Rayas” was who the warrant was issued for, and said he lived at 226 Comstock.

The house involved in this incident is a single building with two separate doors and addresses, aka a duplex.

The house in question on Comstock Street.

Hofeld also alleged that officers already knew beforehand the warrant was for 226, and not 228 where Carrasco and her grandchildren lived, but raided 228 Comstock anyway and unlawfully detained Carrasco and her grandchildren.

As this incident unfolded, Hofeld said officers also entered 226 and arrested Elian J. Raya inside, but held Carrasco and her grandchildren in detainment for six hours, where police denied Carrasco the ability to use the bathroom or her asthma inhaler until they got a search warrant for their house.

“[Police] immediately took [Elian J. Raya] into custody, took him to the police station, held him there, questioned him,” said Al Hofeld Jr, another attorney representing the family. “And while that’s going on, they’re holding the family in 226 and they held the family for almost six hours.”

According to Zach Hofeld, months after the incident, three individuals were arrested and charged in connection to the Halloween shooting, but none of them had any relation to Elliot Reyes, Elian J. Raya, or 226 and 228 Comstock in Joliet.

Family also told WGN News that they have filed Freedom of Information Act requests over the span of a year and have received nothing back.

WGN News reached out to the Joliet Police Department for clarification on the incident that happened at 226 and 228 Comstock, but officials said they cannot comment on pending litigation.