Basketball coaches remember man killed in shootout with Chicago police: 'He let you know he had your back'

During a 2016 Elite Eight game between Kenwood High School and Westinghouse College Prep, Dexter Reed rallied his teammates in a huddle as Westinghouse fell behind.

“We’re down at Kenwood, the gym is packed and he comes into the huddle like: ‘We got this,’” Bill Curry, who was head coach at Westinghouse at the time, recalled. “His calm demeanor under pressure was really special to see.”

Reed, 26, was killed during a shootout that wounded a Chicago police officer Thursday evening in Humboldt Park, officials said.

More than 50 rounds were picked up by the ShotSpotter gunshot-detection system, according to records shared with the Sun-Times.

Parts of the shooting were captured during frantic police radio transmissions. “Shots fired,” an officer screamed. “I’m shot! I’m shot!”

Reed’s coaches were shocked and saddened when they learned about what happened.

Rafie Fields, current Westinghouse head coach and assistant coach during Reed’s time on the team, told the Sun-Times he was “stunned and in disbelief.”

“What happened is very unfortunate,” Fields said. “A lot of people are affected, of course Dexter’s family as well as the Chicago police officer’s family, and the Chicago police officers themselves who was affected by this.”

“It’s just an unfortunate situation [for] everyone involved,” Fields added.

Reed, known as “Dex” by his high school and college teams, was remembered by his coaches as a team leader “who put his own personal goals aside for the good of the team over and over again.”

“Dexter was one of the kids you don’t just coach, you actually really love him because he was an incredible hard worker,” Curry, who coached Reed for all four of his years on the Westinghouse basketball team from 2013 to 2017, said.

Every summer, Reed was among a small group of players who showed up daily at 6 a.m. for strength and conditioning training.

“He showed up all summer, every summer,” Curry said.

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Reed’s positive relationships with his teammates and coaches carried into his time on the basketball team at Morton College.

“He was never the kind of guy I had to chase around,” Aaron Rolle, Reed’s coach at Morton, said. “He was always the gel of the team.”

Rolle, who is now a freelance photographer, drove Reed home from practice one day in 2019 and showed him photos of animals he took while on safari. Reed was moved to tears, he said. The young player then “gave a little smirk and said: ‘Man, coach, I just want to be able to do something like that someday.”

“You always feel connected to these guys,” Rolle said. “You try your best when you’re in a position to mold and raise young people, and it’s always one of those situations where you feel like maybe you could’ve done more.”

Reed’s family could not be reached for comment. Coaches recalled relatives who were proud and “super supportive.”

Reed’s coaches described him as an impactful player in every game he played in, and especially as a leader.

“He was just really unselfish,” Fields said. “He helped get Westinghouse to the Elite Eight of the Chicago Public League city playoffs, and his play was a huge part of the success that season.”

Reed’s coaches shared a bond with him that went beyond basketball. His high school coaches kept in contact with him after he graduated from Westinghouse and played for Morton College.

Reed planned to take up coaching and give back to his community.

“He was hoping [coaching basketball] would become a tool for him with young people,” Curry said.

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Curry and Fields met Reed as a “frail freshman who had been through a lot but continued to work harder every year,” Curry said.

Through his time on the team, Reed developed into a “tall, lanky kid who tried to do his best at whatever the coaches demanded of him,” Fields said.

“Over the course of time, he just grew loyal friendships among the guys. … He let you know he had your back, he let you know he cared, but it wasn’t like in a soft kind of way. He was a tough kid,” Curry said.

He added, “I just wouldn’t want the world to judge his life by the way it ended. I don’t truly know what happened, I just know how much I care for him.”