Peter Mendez speaks about $2.5 million settlement after botched Chicago 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.
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.
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.
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.
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