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CHICAGO – It was a carefree day for Sheila Banks late on the afternoon of March 21, when her son, Dexter Reed, went out to enjoy his new SUV. “Mom, I’m going to drive out,” she recalled Tuesday.
According to the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA), the city’s police watchdog, Reed, 26, was shot and killed in a residential area by Chicago police officers who fired nearly 100 shots in less than a minute. It ended with what happened.
Officers said they pulled Mr. Reed over for not wearing a seatbelt, but COPA has questioned that claim amid heightened tensions in recent weeks over murders and police use of deadly force. It is showing.
The Police Accountability Commission, which released footage of the shooting Tuesday, said Reed appeared to fire first. But lawyers for the family said further investigation was needed. They also argue that the traffic stop is unconstitutional and that this is not the first time Chicago police have falsely claimed a seat belt violation as the trigger for a collision between drivers.
Last but not least, they claimed on Tuesday that Mr. Reed was killed while unarmed and attempting to surrender.
“At the end of the video, you see a military-looking police officer, unarmed and helpless, standing next to a car,” said Andrew M. Strauss, a prominent local civil rights attorney who is representing Reed’s family. “You can see that they are executing Dexter as he lies down.”
City officials, from Mayor Brandon Johnson to State Attorney Kim Foxx, have mourned Reed’s death but have not said charges against the officers are warranted.
The shooting is the latest in a city with a long history of controversy over police killings of people of color.
96 shots fired in 41 seconds
The shooting occurred on the night of March 21 after five plainclothes police officers in an unmarked car stopped Reed in a residential area on Chicago’s West Side.
In newly released body camera footage, Reed is seen driving a white SUV with tinted windows and dents along the side. The female officer told him to roll down the window. he does. A black ski mask hides most of his expression, but his eyes appear wide.
However, Reed resists rolling down the other windows and unlocking the door, and the situation escalates.
Officials said Reed opened fire, striking one of the officers, but it was unclear from body camera footage who fired first.
The officers fired at Reed 96 times in 41 seconds, according to the accountability board.
Body camera footage shows the officer emptying his handgun on Reed multiple times. It’s unclear whether the 26-year-old’s hand will be raised.
Body camera video shows officers continuing to fire after Reed fell to the ground and stopped moving. In the video, the officer can be heard yelling that Reed’s gun was still in the car.
It’s unclear why Reed had the gun. He was awaiting trial in a gun case, according to Cook County court records.
Officials said the officer who was shot in the arm during the shootout was in good condition after the shooting.
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Chicago police watchdog raises ‘grave concerns’
In a letter last week, Andrea Kersten, head of the accountability board, questioned the veracity of the officers who fired at Reid and the appropriateness of their response. She recommended that the officers be stripped of their police powers while the committee investigated.
Given the tinted windows of Reed’s car and its location in relation to an unmarked police vehicle, the commission found it “unclear” how the officer could have seen him unbuckle his seatbelt. , Kirsten wrote in a letter to Chicago’s top police officers obtained by USA TODAY through Freedom of Information. request.
“This evidence raises serious concerns about the legitimacy of the traffic stop that led to the officers’ encounter,” Kersten wrote.
She said the officers’ response to Reed’s report of gunshots also raises “serious questions about the proportionality of the use of deadly force.”
“Evidence recovered in the aftermath of this incident indicates that all four officers fired their weapons at (Reed) after he exited his vehicle and was unarmed,” Kersten said. wrote.
In particular, she accused one officer of firing at least 50 times, including when Reed was “lying motionless.”
Kersten wrote to the board that he has “grave concerns about a police officer’s ability to determine what constitutes a necessary, reasonable and proportionate use of deadly force.”
“Professional, unconstitutional, unreasonable”
At a news conference Tuesday, Stross and other attorneys denounced the shooting as a clear “unreasonable use of force.”
It was confirmed that Reed had a gun, but an investigation would be needed to confirm that Reed fired first. Lawyers said the search began as a “pretentious, unconstitutional and unreasonable” search, but called it the latest example of the city’s failure to comply with federal orders calling for police reform.
“The reason Mr. Dexter is not here is because of the actions and inactions of this administration and this chief of police,” Stross said, referring to freshman mayor and Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling. “How many more black and brown men will die before this city changes?”
Chicago’s history of police-civilian interactions has historically been so abysmal that it was forced into federal action in 2019 following a Justice Department investigation into the 2014 murder of Laquan McDonald by Officer Jason Van Dyke. A judge orders the city to reform its police enforcement.
“Hunting”
Sheila Bedi, another attorney for Reed’s family, said the 2019 federal order specifically criticized the Chicago Police Department’s use of “tactical units.”
Federal agents called the plainclothes team in an unmarked car “searching,” Bedi said.
Years after the federal order was issued, the same “aggressive practices” are still being used, said the Northwestern Law School professor.
“This is not community policing, this is occupying force policing,” she said, adding that it was exactly what the federal order was intended to address and “was clearly a failure.”
The ordinance also aims to eliminate “nominal” traffic stops, she said, and Reed’s alleged seat belt violation is a prime example.
“The truth is, they don’t care about seatbelts. They really just want an excuse to look inside the car and come up with something else,” she says.
Mayor says video is ‘very disturbing’
At a separate news conference Tuesday after the video was released, the mayor offered his condolences to the family and called the footage “very disturbing.”
“I am shocked to see another young black man lose his life in an interaction with police,” Johnson said.
The former teacher said the shooting occurred not far from his West Side home and that Reed and the officer who was shot, who was also black, “could have been my students.”
He said the officers involved in the shooting will be placed on 30-day leave and that the prompt release of the video ahead of the 60-day mandate shows the administration’s commitment to transparency.
“Any attempt to withhold or delay information is a mistake of the past,” he said, apparently referring to former mayor and current ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel’s delay in releasing the video of McDonald’s death. Ta.
Fox said his agency is “conducting an investigation to determine whether criminal charges are warranted.”
“Mommy, let’s get in the car.”
Reed’s family and attorney held a news conference outside the Comptroller’s Office on the city’s Near West Side.
“I’m hurting, I’m sick, I feel like I’ve been shot, I’m on fire inside,” Banks said.
She said Reed, an athlete who loves basketball, checked on her and made sure she was eating well and exercising. He bought her a Peloton bicycle.
“He was a good kid,” Banks said, her voice breaking. What happened to the police? ”
On that last day, he told her, “I said, ‘Mommy, I’m going to get in the car,’ and they killed him,” she said.
After Banks finished his speech, he collapsed with sadness. Her family carried her to her chair, where she continued to cry, “They killed him, they killed my son.”
The family is raising money through a GoFundMe page to help pay for Reed’s recent funeral and legal fees.
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