Clashes break out at protest on West Side after release of Dexter Reed shooting footage
Family and community activists called for the firing of officers who shot and killed Dexter Reed. Two people were injured as protesters clashed and blocked an intersection outside a police station.
Porscha Banks, sister of Dexter Reed, joined in a demonstration Tuesday night outside the 11th District Police Station at 3151 W. Harrison. She questioned how a traffic stop could have led to officers opening fire on her brother: “Whether he shot or not, he should not have been murdered.”
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
One person was hospitalized when a clash erupted at a protest Tuesday evening where community activists and family members of Dexter Reed demanded the firing of officers who fatally shot the 26-year-old during a traffic stop.
Speakers at the rally, which was held outside the 11th District Police Station at 3151 W. Harrison St., expressed outrage that a simple traffic stop had escalated to a deadly situation, and they questioned whether officers were telling the truth when they said they initially pulled Reed over for a seat-belt violation.
A man in the crowd heckled some of the speakers, shouting, “He shot a police officer!” several times. The Civilian Office of Police Accountability on Tuesday said video of the incident appeared to show Reed opened fire first, striking an officer in the hand before four other cops fired roughly 96 shots at Reed in 41 seconds.
“He was a sweet, brave, ambitious, respectable young guy that just liked to spend time with his family. There’s no way he should have been gunned down by CPD,” said Porscha Banks, Reed’s sister. “Whether he shot or not, he should not have been murdered.”
Nicole Banks, mother of Dexter Reed, stands in the middle of the intersection of West Harrison Street during a protest over the fatal shooting of her son, Tuesday, April 9, 2024.|Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
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Porscha Banks, sister of Dexter Reed, shouts at Chicago police officers as activists try to de-escalate the situation during a protest outside the District 11 police station, Tuesday, April 9, 2024. Reed was shot and killed by police in an exchange of gunfire back in March.|Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
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Porscha Banks, sister of Dexter Reed, shouts at Chicago police officers as activists try to de-escalate the situation during a protest outside the District 11 police station, Tuesday, April 9, 2024. Reed was shot and killed by police in an exchange of gunfire back in March.|Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
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Activists “shut down” the intersection of West Harrison Street and South Kenzie Avenue during a protest over the fatal shooting of Dexter Reed, Tuesday, April 9, 2024.|Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
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Activists “shut down” the intersection of West Harrison Street and South Kenzie Avenue during a protest over the fatal shooting of Dexter Reed, Tuesday, April 9, 2024.|Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
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Community members, activists and family members of Dexter Reed rally outside the District 11 police station, after COPA released body camera footage of the fatal police-involved shooting of Reed, Tuesday, April 9, 2024. |Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
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Community members, activists and family members of Dexter Reed rally outside the District 11 police station after COPA released body camera footage of the fatal police-involved shooting of Reed, Tuesday, April 9, 2024. |Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
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Activists “shut down” the intersection of West Harrison Street, and South Kenzie Avenue during a protest over the fatal shooting of Dexter Reed, Tuesday, April 9, 2024.|Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
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Porscha Banks, sister of Dexter Reed, shouts at Chicago police officers as activists try to de-escalate the situation during a protest outside the District 11 police station, Tuesday, April 9, 2024. Reed was shot and killed by police in an exchange of gunfire back in March.|Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
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Chicago police officers create a wall with their bodies at West Harrison Street during a protest over the fatal shooting of Dexter Reed, Tuesday, April 9, 2024.|Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
The heckler later got into a confrontation with a protester after the group moved to block the intersection at Kedzie Avenue and Harrison Street. Several protesters chased the man, and he sought safety behind a line of police officers, who had to call for reinforcements as the rally escalated at the intersection.
Another confrontation broke out between a separate group of protesters as the heckler was being chased. One woman suffered injuries from an assault and was taken in good condition to Mount Sinai Hospital, according to the Chicago Fire Department. Another person refused medical treatment at the scene.
The scene caused tensions to flare between police and protesters, with some getting in the faces of cops, berating and taunting them. Things cooled down when Nicole Banks, Dexter Reed’s mother, stood between protesters and police, arms outstretched, calling for peace.
On March 21, five tactical officers from the Harrison District approached Reed’s GMC Terrain, which had heavily tinted windows. The vehicle was apparently parked in a crosswalk in the 3800 block of West Ferdinand Street in Humboldt Park.
Body-worn camera footage released by COPA on Tuesday shows that Reed resisted orders to roll down his car windows and open the door. As officers shouted at him, Reed opened fire and struck one of the officers in the hand, COPA said. The four other officers then opened fire.
In a letter to Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling, COPA Chief Administrator Andrea Kersten questioned whether the officers lied about why they stopped Reed in Humboldt Park.
Kersten also raised “grave concerns about the officers’ ability to assess what is a necessary, reasonable, and proportional use of deadly force.”
Police reinforcements were called in Tuesday night when community members blocked the intersection of West Harrison Street and South Kedzie Avenue. They were angry over the release of body-worn camera footage showing the killing of Dexter Reed, 26, during a traffic stop in March in Humboldt Park.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
In her letter, Kersten urged Snelling to strip the four officers of their policing powers while raising serious alarms about their actions and their account of the deadly stop.
Aislinn Pulley, of the Chicago Torture Justice Center, questioned why tactical officers were making a traffic stop.
“That makes no sense. Dexter’s vehicle had tinted windows, so the argument that they were looking for a seat-belt violation doesn’t make sense,” she said, calling for the firing of the police officers and disbanding the tactical teams in CPD.
A man who identified himself as Reed’s uncle called for a federal investigation into the officers and the entire department.
“There needs to be a federal investigation done on them and on this police department alone,” he said. “It’s sad for me and my family, and other families like us that have gone through this, but I would like to know that my nephew will stop this, and be a person that brings attention and consciousness to this world and this country.”
Dexter Reed’s uncle, Randy, said he hoped federal authorities would look into the killing.
The lawsuit accuses Chicago police of promoting “brutally violent, militarized policing tactics,” and argues the five officers who stopped Reed “created an environment that directly resulted in his death.”
Witnesses at federal court hearings worried that including traffic stops in a consent decree originally issued in 2019 to reform the Chicago Police Department would actually slow attempts to curb the controversial practice.
Two counts of excessive force would be withdrawn because ballistics results could take up to a year or more to complete, slowing down progress on litigation, according to the court document.
Andrea Kersten, chief administrator of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, wrote in a letter to Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling that her office hadn’t received a written response to her earlier request to strip the tactical officers of their powers.
Too often, use-of-force cases are tried not in courts of law but in the court of public opinion, despite research showing such cases are hardly the norm.
The draft policy aims to undercut a dramatic rise in stops that disproportionately target people of color and rarely lead to arrests. “It felt like it was time to do something about it,” said Foxx, who is stepping down as Cook County state’s attorney this year.
Community activist Baltazar Enriquez asked the police department to solve each homicide as quickly as it cleared the shooting death of Officer Luis Huesca, who was killed on his way home in Gage Park last month.
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 March 21 in the 3800 block of West Ferdinand Street.
While he played, it seemed that happiness was the only thing that eluding him. He is a different person now. He has been through the fire — with his health, as a manager who resigned from a failing Phillies team in 2015 — and now has learnedd how much he is loved by many, by Cubs fans overwhelmingly.
Two teens and a male were shot about 3:56 p.m. Monday in the 5300 block of South Pulaski Road. The teens are hospitalized. The male died at a hospital. No one is in custody.
