Dexter Reed was shot at least 13 times when he was killed in a gun battle with Chicago police during a traffic stop last month in Humboldt Park, according to a newly released autopsy report.
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability, the oversight agency investigating the shooting, has reported that four officers fired nearly 100 rounds at Reed after he shot another officer in the wrist on March 21 in the 3800 block of West Ferdinand Street.
Reed was struck four times in his buttocks and twice in his chest, right thigh and right leg, according to an autopsy report released Thursday by the Cook County medical examiner’s office through an open records request. He was also hit in his back, left shoulder and left knee.
Reed’s death has been ruled a homicide, according to the medical examiner’s office, which noted that a toxicology screen revealed Reed’s system contained Delta-9 THC, the key psychoactive component that’s found in marijuana.
The medical examiner’s office also recovered another projectile from the bottom of Reed’s spine and noted he had several healed surgical scars on his body. Police records show Reed had previously been shot in August 2021, when he allegedly attacked an uncle during an apparent mental health crisis. The uncle shot him once in his back and twice in his groin.
Reed’s killing has prompted protests and a federal lawsuit his family filed on Wednesday, alleging among other things that the officers involved in the shooting used excessive force and violated Reed’s civil rights.
Andrew Stroth, the Reed family’s attorney, said the autopsy results reinforce their view “that these officers used excessive and unreasonable force. Dexter didn’t have a chance.”
Tim Grace, an attorney for the officers, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Earlier this month, COPA released video footage of the shooting and reported that Reed initially fired at one of the officers who approached his GMC Terrain after he was stopped for a purported seat belt violation and failed to comply with orders to roll down his windows and open his door.
After that officer was wounded, four other officers fired 96 rounds in just 41 seconds, according to COPA. The shooting continued after Reed exited his SUV and fell to the pavement.
In a letter to Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling, COPA Chief Administrator Andrea Kersten noted that one officer fired “at least 50 times,” including three rounds as Reed lay “motionless on the ground.”
In her letter, Kersten pushed Snelling to strip the officers of their policing powers as she questioned “the proportionality of their use of force” and the stated reason for the traffic stop.
“COPA is uncertain how the officers could have seen this seat belt violation given their location relative to [Reed’s] vehicle and the dark tints on [Reed’s] windows,” Kersten wrote. “This evidence raises serious concerns about the validity of the traffic stop that led to the officers’ encounter with [Reed].”
Snelling rebuffed Kersten’s request to strip the officers, who remain on administrative duties.
The superintendent has repeatedly slammed his civilian counterpart’s handling of the investigation, including her decision to comment publicly on the preliminary investigation.
“Nothing and no one should be judged in a court of public opinion,” Snelling said at a news conference this month. “So my concern is that the integrity of the investigation isn’t jeopardized and all of the evidence is collected and looked at properly.”
