(CHICAGO) — The family of Irene Chavez – a woman who died in Chicago police custody last December after an apparent suicide – filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city and several police officers.

“What we know is Irene Chavez died in the care and custody of the Chicago police. The officers knew Irene had mental health challenges,” Andrew Stroth, the family’s attorney, said at a press conference on Tuesday.

Stroth referenced a video of Chavez released last week by the Chicago’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability, where Chavez is seen arguing with arresting officers and telling them that she is a military veteran who suffers from PTSD.

Those details are also documented in a police incident report released by COPA.

“CPD officers ignored this information and failed to modify standard arrest procedures to accommodate Irene’s mental health needs,” the lawsuit, which was obtained by ABC News, alleges.

“Not only did CPD officers refuse to accommodate Irene’s disability during the arrest, but they intentionally escalated the situation by mocking Irene and her friend, and using foul, aggressive language,” the lawsuit says.

The Chicago Police Department told ABC News that it does not comment on pending litigation and has referred all questions about the case to COPA.

The City of Chicago’s Law Department did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment but told the ABC station in Chicago, WLS, on Tuesday that “The City has not yet been served with a complaint and will have no further comment as the matter is now in litigation.”

The documents and videos related to the death of Chavez were released as part of an investigation by the civilian oversight agency looking into Chavez’s death.

Body camera video released by COPA shows Chavez arguing while being arrested hours before her death.

According to police, the 33-year-old woman died after an “attempted suicide” on Dec. 18, 2021, at the 3rd District Police Station. The official cause and manner of death are pending autopsy results, the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office told ABC News.

Police said Chavez was taken into custody after her involvement in a bar fight at the Jeffery Pub Tavern and was belligerent during processing.

Chavez could be heard by police shouting in the holding cell, the report by COPA said. After about five minutes of silence, an officer went to check on her well-being by looking through the window, the report said. That’s when Chavez was found with her shirt wrapped around her neck, tied to a bench and had a “faint pulse,” according to the report.

Video released by COPA shows officers performing CPR before Chavez was transported to the University of Chicago Hospital. According to COPA, Chavez was in “critical condition” at the time and was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Iris Chavez, Irene’s sister, accused police of neglect and said officers should have recognized that her sister was struggling with mental health.

“[I’m] Looking at the video and saying to myself, why aren’t they doing this instead? Why didn’t they do this? Or why is he talking to her like that?” Iris Chavez said.

According to the lawsuit, Irene Chavez was a “queer Afro-Latina” woman from Chicago and was a “decorated military veteran” who served in combat zones.

“After her honorable discharge from the military, Irene developed serious post-traumatic stress disorder (“PTSD”) and struggled with alcohol dependency,” the lawsuit says.

According to the lawsuit, Chavez was “in the midst of a mental health crisis” when she was arrested and had relapsed to drinking that day after being sober for a month.

“Both Irene and her friend repeatedly told CPD officers that Irene was a veteran, that she had PTSD, and that she needed hospitalization,” the lawsuit says.

Irene Chavez is one of two women to die in Chicago police custody within less than two months.

COPA is also investigating the death of London Marquez, 31, who died on Jan. 27. According to Marquez’s family, she was pregnant at the time of her death.

Chicago police declined to comment on that case and referred questions regarding both cases to COPA.

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(LOUISVILLE, Ky.) — Wednesday marked the start of the trial for the sole Louisville, Kentucky, police officer charged in connection to the “no-knock” search warrant raid that killed Breonna Taylor.

Brett Hankison — who is expected to testify — is charged with three counts of first-degree wanton endangerment of Taylor’s neighbors.

Prosecutors say he fired shots that endangered three people who were inside a neighboring apartment: Cody Etherton, his pregnant partner Chelsey Napper and their 5-year-old son.

Hankison was fired from the Louisville Police Department after the March 2020 shooting and is the only officer charged in connection with the incident. No officers have been charged with shooting Taylor.

The deadly shooting took place shortly after midnight on March 13, 2020. Taylor, a 26-year-old Black medical worker, was asleep at home with her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker.

Officers arrived and executed a “no-knock” search warrant as part of an investigation into a suspected drug operation, allegedly linked to Taylor’s ex-boyfriend.

Walker, who claims he thought the officers were intruders, fired one shot from his handgun, striking an officer in the leg. In response, police opened fire, and Taylor was shot multiple times. No drugs were found in Taylor’s apartment.

Etherton, the first witness, testified that the gunshots were “inches away from hitting me.”

“Literally, like, one or two more inches and I would have been shot,” he said. “I think about it all the time … I would never even got to meet my son,” he added, referring to his son Bryson.

On cross-examination, Mathews asked Etherton if the situation was chaotic.

“Yeah, the whole thing was chaotic,” Etherton said. “From the time that I got woke up to a loud boom, gunfire coming through my wall and nearly killing me, could have struck my girlfriend. It was chaos.”

Matthews also called attention to the lawsuit that Etherson filed against Hankison and the city of Louisville.

Second on the stand was Louisville Police Sgt. Kyle Meany, who was investigating drug trafficking and looking into Taylor’s ex-boyfriend. Meany was not involved in serving the search warrant.

Meany said a number of search warrants were obtained for different addresses, including Taylor’s. The affidavit attached to the search warrant for Taylor’s apartment was designated as a “no-knock warrant” request, he said, adding that the physical search warrant related to the affidavit was signed by the judge.

Meany said police conducted surveillance of the apartment prior to obtaining the warrant and had photos of Taylor’s ex-boyfriend at her apartment.

On March 12, 2020, police held a briefing for executing the search warrant, he said. Meany confirmed there was a white board with various addresses that were subjects of the search warrants, including Taylor’s address. Above the address, the words “knock and announce” were written, he said.

In opening statements Wednesday, Assistant Attorney General Barbara Whaley said Hankison fired five bullets into Taylor’s apartment, three of which reached Etherton’s apartment.

Whaley said when officers breached Taylor’s apartment, the officer who fatally shot Taylor moved up to cover the officer with the battering ram, putting himself in the line of fire. Hankison was supposed to be in this role but was telling a person who was leaving a neighboring apartment to go back inside, Whaley said.

Whaley said Hankison had been engaging with that person when shots rang out. She said Hankison fired perpendicular to where the shot came from inside of Taylor’s apartment.

The prosecutor said Etherton jumped up when he heard the ram at Taylor’s apartment and walked toward his front door to see what was going on.

“A bullet whizzed close to his head that he heard, and then saw debris, drywall dust, where that bullet had come through,” Whaley said.

Whaley also said that Hankison gave a statement to investigators claiming he saw a shooter with an AR-15-style rifle in a combat position. No AR-15-style rifle was recovered from Taylor’s apartment, Whaley said.

Hankison’s defense attorney, Stew Matthews, said in his opening statement that he didn’t plan to dispute the evidence presented by the prosecution, but the “issue is what was the reasoning behind his [Hankison] firing the shots.”

Matthews focused on the chaos of the situation and said that Hankison will testify.

Matthews said the prosecution doesn’t know whether or not Hankison could see what was going on into the doorway and that it was “not accurate” to say that he couldn’t see into the hallway when the door was breached.

Matthews said that Hankison saw the muzzle flash from the gun that was fired at officers and that “his perception of it was that it was an AR-15 rifle.”

Matthews said that when Hankison fired his gun, he was “attempting to defend and save the lives of his brother officers.” He said that under the operating procedures of the police department, officers are obligated to defend other officers and citizens, and “that’s exactly what Brett Hankison was doing in this situation.”

“His actions were reasonable and justified given the chaotic situation he was in,” Matthews said.

Hankison has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison.

Two other officers involved were also fired from the police department: the officer who fired the shot that killed Taylor per a ballistics analysis and the officer who prepared the search warrant.

ABC News’ Kendall Ross and Kiara Alfonseca contributed to this report.

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