A federal lawsuit filed by the mother of Dexter Reed contends he was killed by Chicago police officers who unlawfully pulled over his SUV last month and were “outrageously” aggressive as they approached him.
The lawsuit accuses Chicago police of promoting “brutally violent, militarized policing tactics,” and argues that the five officers who stopped Reed “created an environment that directly resulted in his death.”
Reed, 26, was driving in the 3800 block of West Ferdinand Street in Humboldt Park on March 21 when tactical officers in an unmarked car stopped his GMC Terrain. The Civilian Office of Police Accountability, the oversight agency investigating the shooting, has said Reed was stopped for a minor seatbelt violation.
But video footage released by COPA shows the officers aggressively approached Reed, drawing their guns as they yelled for him to lower his window and open his door. Instead, Reed opened fire and struck one of the officers in the wrist, according to COPA.
The other officers shot back, firing as many as 96 shots in 41 seconds, COPA said.
The lawsuit claims Reed “presented no threat to the officers” and doesn’t mention that he fired first, or that a gun was found in his front passenger seat, as COPA has reported. Asked why those key findings were omitted from the suit, Reed family lawyer Steven Hart said “the facts are still uncertain.”
“We don’t have the ballistics evidence back yet,” he said at a news conference with family members Wednesday. “We don’t know the sequence of the shots. We know that everything that occurred began with a traffic stop that was unconstitutional on its face.”
The suit suggests, without citing any evidence, that Reed became confused and afraid as the officers surrounded his SUV and shouted orders to roll down separate windows and open the door.
It says the officers fired “a barrage of bullets” while Reed was inside the SUV and continued shooting after he exited without a gun and tried to surrender. The shooting only stopped after one of the officers fired three rounds at Reed’s “motionless body on the ground,” the suit states.
None of the five officers rendered first aid to Reed, who was placed in handcuffs as his blood pooled in the street, the lawsuit states.
Andrew M. Stroth, an attorney representing Reed’s mother, says the family hopes the lawsuit will “save the lives of others” and that they are “committed to working with the mayor.”
The city and its police department wouldn’t comment on the pending case.
‘A mockery of reform’
The five officers were members of a tactical, or plainclothes, team operating in the Harrison District on the West Side. The complaint cites what it calls a long and troubling history of such units, contending they have “intentionally preyed on Chicago’s young Black men in divested and low-income neighborhoods.”
Much of the 81-page lawsuit reads like an indictment of the department’s checkered history and its current policies and practices, including the increased reliance on conducting traffic stops that have been found to disproportionately target people of color.
The suit also criticizes the department’s slow push to comply with a federal court order mandating sweeping changes. That order, known as a consent decree, was spurred by the fatal police shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, which led to the conviction of former Officer Jason Van Dyke.
Pointing to past studies of the department’s use of tactical units and reliance on traffic stops, the lawsuit concludes that police leaders “make a mockery of reform and refuse to comply with the most basic principles of constitutional policing.”
While the suit disregards some of COPA’s key findings, it highlights “grave concerns” the agency’s leader voiced in a letter to Police Supt. Larry Snelling about the officers’ “ability to assess what is a necessary, reasonable, and proportional use of deadly force.”
In that letter, COPA Chief Administrator Andrea Kersten also questioned whether the officers lied about the reason for the stop. Kersten noted the SUV’s windows were tinted, making it hard for the officers to see inside and determine whether Reed was wearing a seat belt.
Snelling rebuffed Kersten’s request to strip the officers of their policing powers, and he has criticized her for releasing the letter and publicly commenting on the ongoing investigation. The officers remain on administrative duties, a police spokesperson said.
‘They executed him’
At Wednesday’s news conference outside the Harrison District station, Reed’s family said his death was caused by overly aggressive police tactics that are all too common on the West Side.
"[The officers involved] need to be taken off the streets, locked up,” said Reed’s sister, Porscha Banks. “They should not be on the street, [on] the tactical team, scaring everyone. We have our kids in the family, they’re scared of the police. People are scared to pull over.”
The lawsuit notes that Reed was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, arguing that the officers should have considered his potential condition and should have used more restraint during the stop.
Police records indicate Reed was in the throes of a mental health crisis when he attacked his uncle in August 2021, leading his uncle to shoot him. Reed was left in a coma for weeks and struggled with his mental and physical health as he recovered.
In the years after Reed was shot by his uncle, he made his personal struggles well known on social media and in a slew of handwritten court filings. Once a standout basketball player, Reed was having a difficult time forging a new identity after his playing career ended.
Reed’s mother, Nicole Banks, appeared visibly shaken as she spoke to reporters Wednesday. She noted that she has watched the video of her son’s death “over and over.”
“They executed him,” she said, her voice trembling. “He fell down and they put the handcuffs on him. That’s not right.”
