Dexter Reed's shooting leaves Chicago with questions that demand answers

One of the first questions that comes to mind while watching the disturbing, chaotic video footage of the fatal Chicago police shooting of Dexter Reed is this:

Why are police still shooting, even after Reed was down?

The video and the account of the shooting by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability shows that the encounter between police and Reed last month in Humboldt Park quickly escalated: A group of tactical officers approached Reed in his vehicle, barking orders at him and demanding he get out of his SUV. Reed then apparently fired at the officers first, striking one officer. In response, the officers scatter and continue firing repeatedly, even after Reed was lying on the ground — in all, firing 96 times in 41 seconds, COPA asserts.

That’s not the only outstanding question about the shooting, which happened on March 21.

Mayor Brandon Johnson rightly warned on Tuesday against drawing conclusions about the incident before all the facts are in. We agree. Johnson said he was “personally devastated to see yet another young Black man lose his life during an interaction with the police,” and also noted that “shooting a police officer can never be condoned, never excused.” We agree on those points as well.

It is a tragedy when a civilian is killed and a police officer wounded during what reportedly began as a traffic stop. The best path forward now — for Reed’s family, the officers involved and Chicago as a whole — is a fair and thorough investigation of what happened and an action plan for preventing another deadly tragedy.

COPA’s investigation continues, and the sooner it is complete, the better.

Deadly force, after Reed fired first?

Chicago police say Reed, 26, fired first when the Harrison District tactical officers approached his SUV in a crosswalk in the 3800 block of West Ferdinand Street. Video from a home surveillance camera in the area bolsters that assertion, apparently showing plumes of smoke coming from inside the SUV as gunshots are heard. An officer is seen falling backward.

That video also bolsters what Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd), chair of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee, said he was told: that Reed fired 11 shots through his car window at officers.

Did Reed panic and begin firing when he saw a group of armed officers approach his SUV? Did officers, hearing gunshots and seeing their fellow officer fall backward, scatter and begin firing, not knowing what they might be up against from inside a car with tinted windows?

State police are still investigating ballistics to determine if Reed did indeed fire first; a gun was recovered from the car. As for the officers’ response, COPA’s chief administrator Andrea Kersten wrote in a letter to Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling that there were “serious questions about the proportionality of their use of deadly force.”

Another question: Why did officers initially approach Reed’s SUV? COPA was initially told it was a seat belt violation. But Kersten questioned that, citing the officers’ “location relative to [Reed’s] vehicle and the dark tints on [Reed’s] windows.”

If officers had another reason to approach Reed’s vehicle, what was it? The SUV was reportedly parked in a crosswalk, so was that part of the reason? In any case, why did officers approach so aggressively, if it was a mere seat belt or crosswalk violation?

Kersten noted, in a footnote to her letter to Snelling, that COPA has another open investigation into a traffic stop involving the same officers less than a month earlier — also related to an alleged seat belt violation.

Reed’s background and the history of the Harrison police district also raise questions about the circumstances surrounding the shooting. Reed had been arrested twice in a matter of months before the shooting, and was awaiting trial on a gun case, Cook County court records show. The police beat where the incident happened has had seven police shootings since 2015, one of only a few beats to have more than six police shootings in that same time period. Officers in the Harrison District as a whole have also pulled over more cars, and fired their weapons more often, than officers in other districts in recent years — not surprising, since the area has one of the highest rates of overall gun violence in the city.

COPA says its investigators have briefed the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice about the incident. Given this city’s fraught history of police shootings, federal officials might do well to step in at some point.

Meanwhile, with so many outstanding questions, jumping to conclusions is the wrong answer.

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