Residents and neighbors of a South Shore apartment building called 911 as federal immigration agents carried out a controversial raid there last month. Recordings of the calls, which the Weekly obtained via a public-records request, reveal frightened people asking for help—and one person complaining that agents had specific apartment numbers that they were supposed to target and broke down one resident’s door in error.
Recordings of conversations between dispatchers and police also show that while the raid was taking place federal agents also arrested two U.S. citizens for driving under the influence in Steelworkers Park, two miles south of the building.
Agents stormed 7500 S. South Shore Dr. in the early morning hours of September 30. Dozens of heavily armed FBI, ICE, and Border Patrol agents swarmed the block as others rappelled from a Black Hawk helicopter. Once inside, agents broke into apartments, threw concussion grenades, and zip-tied dozens of residents—including small children—before separating people by race. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has said its agents detained thirty-seven people. According to a CPD spokesperson, police took one person into custody for a criminal warrant at the building during the raid.
Last week, Block Club reported that fifteen emergency calls were made from the apartment building on the day of the raid. In response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by the Weekly, OEMC provided recordings of four 911 calls related to the raid. It’s unclear precisely what time each was placed, but they all were all apparently made while it was in progress.
In one, a neighbor called to complain about the helicopter noise.
“I don’t know if this is an emergency, but there is this helicopter that is just flying around the house,” they said. “They’ve been doing this for a whole hour, and I don’t understand why. There’s, like, working families around here, and we all need to go to work in the morning. And so him hovering around is absolutely driving me insane.” The dispatcher said she would alert the police.
Another person called twice, trying to get information about what was going on after they’d lost contact with their significant other, a resident at the building, as agents burst into his unit.
“I don’t know what was happening, but he called me worried, and all I heard was the police,” they said. “I’m trying to see what’s going on.” The dispatcher said she had gotten a previous call from that address, adding, “Hopefully we’ll get an officer on scene soon.”
Ten minutes later, that person called back, frantic for an update. “I was calling because my significant other had called me and dropped the phone,” they said. “He just said, ‘What am I being detained for?’ Then the call dropped.” The dispatcher said she would inform the police.
In another recording, a caller was incensed that their friend’s door had been battered in by federal agents. They seemed to imply that the apartment was not one of the ones agents were supposed to target that night.
“We just had a wrongful break-in by the FBI and the ICE people, and now my friend’s door won’t even lock,” they said. “They got the numbers of the apartments on his wrist, and they still kicked this door in, and that door will not lock.” In response to the dispatcher’s questions, the caller reiterated that the agent had the apartment numbers “on his wrist” and damaged the apartment door in a “wrongful break-in.”
The call adds to mounting evidence that agents had advance information on which apartments migrants were living in. Two weeks before the raid, teachers at a CPS school across the street from the building told the Weekly they’d seen ICE agents surveilling the area. Earlier this month, WBEZ and Sun-Times reporters found a map of the building in one of the raided apartments that labeled units as “vacant,” “tenant,” or “firearms.” Multiple journalists have observed codes taped on the doors of some of the apartments, but it’s unclear what they mean or when they were placed there.
The Weekly also obtained recordings of communications between dispatchers and Chicago police from the night of the raid.
At about 1:00 a.m., the dispatcher said a 911 caller reported cars going in and out of the adjacent CPS-contracted school parking lot, people standing on the block, and a helicopter. “Ten-four, that’s, um, ICE,” replied another person; it’s unclear whether they were an OEMC operator or a police officer. In a later call, dispatchers discussed alerting the CTA of the need to reroute buses around the area.
In another exchange, an officer told the dispatcher that Border Patrol agents detained two U.S. citizens in Steelworkers Park, two miles south of where the South Shore raid was unfolding, and wanted the Chicago police to take them off their hands.
“Border Patrol called the station requesting a vehicle to go to 87th and Lake Shore Drive for two U.S. citizens they have in custody for DUI,” the officer said. “They almost hit their vehicle. They’re located at the dead end of that location, and they have both people in custody.”
A CPD spokesperson said they were unable to find any case reports related to that call. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to the Weekly’s emailed questions about the DUI arrests.
Ed Yohnka, a spokesperson for the Illinois ACLU, said federal agents are “terrorizing” Chicago.
“Their dangerous provocations show that they are not helping keep our neighborhoods safe,” Yohnka said in an email. “They should leave policing matters to the state and local authorities who are accountable to our communities. Given the notable falsehoods that federal authorities have been spreading, local police would do well to be skeptical of any allegations by federal agents that Chicagoans have engaged in unlawful conduct.”
Jim Daley is the Weekly’s investigations editor.
