A mother says a simple trip to get food with her three young children in Chicago's West Humboldt Park neighborhood turned into a frightening experience for her family.
Jahaira Ruiz told NBC 5 that a Chicago police officer pulled a gun on her 7- and 8-year-old children after they performed a traffic stop on her vehicle Monday night.
A witness, who captured a portion of the incident on video, said the officer approached the vehicle's back seat and then pulled out a gun. Ruiz's children could be heard crying in the video.
The mother herself was upset, yelling at the officers and demanding answers.
"We didn’t know why we were being pulled over," Ruiz said. "I’m asking, ‘why are you pulling me over? Why are you treating me like a criminal? What’s going on?’ They still were not giving me any information."
Chicago police officials said officers pulled the vehicle over, because the plates fit the description of a car seen with three women who pointed a gun at someone. Ruiz said there was no weapon in the vehicle.
The Chicago Police Department released a statement to NBC 5 in which officials confirmed a "pointing incident." No arrests were made.
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Ruiz said, in recent days, her daughter has had a hard time sleeping.
"She thought that I was going to get killed," the mother said. "She kept thinking of the gun and that they were going to take them away, that I was going to go to jail.”
Both Ruiz and the witness said they will submit complaints to the Civilian Office of Police Accountability.
