Crime & Law
CPD Sergeant Responsible for Botched Raid Won’t Be Fired — But Was Promoted
(Michael Izquierdo / WTTW News)
The Chicago police sergeant who oversaw officers who detained the same teen four times in less than 30 minutes in what investigators ruled was a botched raid will not be fired, according to documents obtained by WTTW News.
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability urged Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling to fire Sgt. Syed Quadri for his actions on Dec. 24, 2019, when he tackled and handcuffed 16-year-old Jaylin Stiger without justification and oversaw the nearly two dozen officers who repeatedly detained Jaylin and his 13-year-old brother, according to records recently published by the agency better known as COPA.
“Sgt. Quadri is the most culpable for the harm suffered by (Jaylin) ... and the other civilians involved in this case,” the agency’s investigators concluded in January 2024, redacting the teen’s last name in keeping with COPA rules. “His lack of leadership and failure to properly supervise the officers on scene lead to unnecessary searches and prolonged detentions. He also engaged in numerous civil rights violations, used unnecessary force against a minor and failed to activate his body-worn camera while searching a residence.”
Jaylin’s name became a part of the public record after he sued the city in December 2021, along with his mother and brother, a case that is still pending as settlement negotiations take place, federal court records show. Al Holfeld, the family’s lawyer, did not respond to a request for comment from WTTW News.
Despite COPA’s findings, Snelling determined in April 2024 that Quadri should be suspended for just two days, calling him “a decorated supervisor who acted as a leader in the most difficult circumstances.”
Quadri was promoted to lieutenant two months after Snelling refused to fire him, records show.
Quadri, who earns $160,746 annually, is assigned to the Near North (18th) Police District, which includes Lincoln Park and the Gold Coast, according to a statement from a CPD spokesperson.
Between 2019 and 2021, Chicago taxpayers spent $160,000 to resolve three lawsuits that allege Quadri violated the rights of other Chicagoans, according to an analysis of city data by WTTW News.
COPA Chief Administrator LaKenya White wrote in May 2026 that the agency had no choice but to accept Snelling’s decision to suspend Quadri for two days based on “procedural, not substantive, concerns.” A spokesperson for the agency did not respond to an inquiry about what issues prompted that decision.
Quadri did not respond to a request for comment from WTTW News.
Quadri is the second CPD member in recent months to be promoted by CPD brass after misconduct investigators urged they be fired for egregious misconduct, records show.
After WTTW News reported that Officer Brian Collins was promoted to sergeant after COPA ruled his decision to shoot a 16-year-old in September 2017 violated CPD policy, Mayor Brandon Johnson said the department should change the way it determines which officers should be promoted.
The U.S. Department of Justice determined in 2017 that officers routinely violated the constitutional rights of Black and Latino Chicagoans and urged the department to change the way it promotes officers to detective, sergeant or lieutenant.
The federal investigation prompted the consent decree, the federal court order that requires CPD to change the way it trains, supervises and disciplines officers.
That binding court order requires CPD to create a new process that allows CPD leaders to consider officers’ disciplinary histories when weighing promotions.
U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer, who is overseeing the reform effort, is scheduled to hold a hearing Tuesday on efforts to ensure that officers’ disciplinary records are considered when they ask to be promoted.
Investigators with COPA concluded that nine other officers who participated in the raid of the teen’s apartment building violated dozens of CPD policies and should be suspended for a combined 172 days.
Snelling objected to those recommendations as well, urging that just two officers who participated in the raid be suspended for a combined 11 days.
That disagreement meant it was up to Chicago Police Board Member Steven Block, who was randomly chosen in keeping with the city’s rules, to determine whether Snelling met “his burden of overcoming” White’s recommendation.
Block determined White’s decision would stand.
Two other officers who were disciplined for their actions during the raid were also promoted after the incident.
Officer Jeffrey Riordan became a detective in December 2022, before COPA recommended he be suspended for 10 days, records show.
Officer Mohammed Ahmed was promoted to sergeant in May 2024, after COPA recommended he be suspended for four days, records show.
Neither Riordan nor Ahmed responded to a request for comment from WTTW News.
Three officers who participated in the raid resigned before COPA could complete its probe.
A Christmas Eve Call About Trespassers
The incident that led to the botched raid began at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 24, 2019, when the manager of a parking garage near Loyola University’s Rogers Park campus called 911 to report that a group of teens was trespassing in the garage.
COPA’s probe did not examine why 20 CPD members responded to a call about unarmed trespassers who had not been accused of damaging property or committing a violent crime.
When the police arrived, two people were arrested, while four others fled, pursued by officers, records show.
Officers believed the other teens suspected of trespassing in the garage fled into a nearby apartment building, where Jaylin lived with his mother, Quarnita James, and 13-year-old brother, Lazerick James, records show.
The lawsuit filed by the family against the city accuses officers of searching for the trespassers in the wrong building after becoming confused in the densely populated area near the Loyola campus.
While officers were conducting that search, Jaylin returned home to change clothes before heading out with his friends, according to his family’s lawsuit. When he exited the front door of his apartment building, five officers, including Quadri, tackled him to the ground and handcuffed him.
After the teen told officers that he lived in the building, one of the officers took his house keys out of his pocket and used them to open the main door of the building and then used them to open the front door of his apartment, where his brother was home and confirmed that Jaylin lived there, records show.
After being handcuffed in the front courtyard of his apartment building for 10 minutes, officers released Jaylin and continued to search for the trespassers, records show.
COPA determined the officers’ actions violated the teen’s civil rights and department policy, records show.
Jaylin then walked to the Loyola station on CTA’s Red Line, where a separate group of officers stopped Jaylin, even though he had just been cleared by Quadri, records show.
That stop also violated the teen’s civil rights and department policy, records show.
Jaylin decided to return home, only to be stopped in the hallway of his building by a third group of officers, who were also searching for the trespassers by knocking on apartment doors and demanding that those present identify themselves, records show.
Officers entered an apartment that was empty and unlocked, in violation of CPD policy and the 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits law enforcement agencies from searching homes without a warrant unless there is evidence of an ongoing threat to life, safety, property or evidence.
Those officers entered the apartment building after Officer Gregory Stranski used a pry bar to break down the back door, records show.
Stranski said he did that because he believed the trespassers used a “nail clipper” to pick the lock on the door to get into the apartment building in an effort to evade police, even though there was no damage to the lock or the door, records show.
Stranski’s belief was not “objectively reasonable” and served to escalate the incident, COPA’s probe concluded, urging that he be suspended for at least 60 days.
Stranski did not respond to a request for comment from WTTW News.
Quadri and Stranski told COPA investigators that officers had been investigating a series of robberies in the area at the time of the incident.
However, there was no evidence anyone suspected of trespassing had committed a robbery or any other crime, COPA concluded.
After officers improperly stopped the teen for a third time, Jaylin entered his apartment, only for Officer Guadalupe Aguirre, a member of a fourth group of officers, to demand less than a minute later that he and his brother open their apartment door or be dragged out, records show.
When Lazerick opened the door, Aguirre pointed his gun at him, while Officer Jesada Laksanaprom pointed his Taser at him, according to COPA’s probe.
The 13-year-old was forced to the floor and handcuffed, records show.
As he searched their apartment, Aguirre ordered Jaylin to the ground and handcuffed him, records show.
After officers reported that they had detained two suspected trespassers, Quadri came to the brothers’ apartment and ordered both released after they had been handcuffed for approximately five minutes, records show.
Quadri said the boys were not suspected of being the trespassers, records show.
COPA recommended that Aguirre be suspended for 60 days, while urging that Laksanaprom be suspended for 20 days, finding their actions violated department policy and were not reasonable, records show.
Neither Aguirre nor Laksanaprom responded to a request for comment from WTTW News.
Laksanaprom was also disciplined for wearing a “Punisher” patch on his vest, near his star and star number in violation of CPD policy, records show.
A Marvel Comics character, the Punisher is “associated with vigilantism and hate groups,” according to COPA’s report.
Laksanaprom said he was wearing the patch because his daughter gave it to him, according to COPA’s report.
The actions of the officers not only violated the teens’ constitutional rights, but were “needlessly traumatizing,” according to the lawsuit they filed against the city.
Chicago police officers have been repeatedly accused of conducting raids without evidence of a crime and pointing guns at children and teens who pose no threat to officers.
A newly implemented CPD policy urges officers to “avoid handcuffing or intentionally pointing firearms at children unless reasonably necessary” while searching residences.
In February, a federal jury ordered the city to pay $5.7 million to the Tate family and their four children, determining that a botched 2018 police raid of their Back of the Yards apartment violated their civil rights.
Lawyers for the city have asked the judge in that case to overturn that verdict and order a new trial.
The Tate family, which was also represented by Holfeld, has asked the judge to order the city to pay their legal fees, which total $5 million, records show.
Taxpayers paid the Mendez family, who alleged their 5- and 9-year-old children were traumatized by being held at gunpoint during a raid, $2.5 million in July 2025. Holfeld was also the lawyer for the Mendez family.
WTTW News coverage of policing and police reform is supported by The Joyce Foundation.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
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