Family outraged at Chicago police after black man who apparently shot at cops first was fatally struck by return fire

A family is demanding answers after their loved one — 26-year-old Dexter Reed — died after apparently firing on Chicago police officers during a traffic stop last month.

The traffic stop went awry almost immediately.

Around 3 p.m. on March 21, five members of a tactical unit with the Chicago Police Department pulled Reed over ostensibly because he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt.

One officer ordered Reed to roll down his window. Reed, who was in the driver’s seat, initially obliged but then almost as quickly began rolling the window back up again.

“Roll the window down,” the officer demanded, according to police footage released Tuesday. “What are you doing? Roll that one down too. Hey! Don’t roll the window, don’t roll the window up. Do not roll the window up. Unlock the doors.”

Soon afterward, Reed apparently produced a weapon and shot at an officer near the passenger door. How many shots Reed fired is unclear, but at least one of his bullets wounded the officer in the forearm, a statement from the Civilian Office of Police Accountability said. The officer’s current condition is unknown.

The other four officers almost instantly returned fire on the suspect, unleashing a barrage of bullets in under 40 seconds. Reports have not stated whether Reed continued to fire his weapon during this time, but video evidence shows that he drove his car briefly forward, striking a parked car.

Reed then exited the vehicle and ran around behind it, though officers likely had no way of knowing he had left his gun in the front seat and was at that point unarmed. While he was standing near the left taillight of his SUV, Reed was hit several more times by police fire and collapsed to the ground before one officer fired three more shots, video showed.

Officers, all of whom were reportedly wearing street clothes, then apparently attempted to render aid. Reed was eventually transported to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

“Review of video footage and initial reports appears to confirm that Mr. Reed fired first,” the COPA statement said.

Despite Reed’s apparent noncompliance and the evidence indicating that he started the gunfire, the family still believes the police response — 96 total shots — was unreasonable.

“Why did they shoot him them many times?” Reed’s mother asked during an interview with CNN. “He’s already dead. Why you starting shooting him like that?”

“They shot him down like an animal.”

Some have also raised questions about the pretense of the traffic stop and the officers involved in it. CBS 2 asked former Chicago Police First Deputy Supt. Anthony Riccio whether tactical units often initiate relatively mundane traffic stops. Andrea Kersten, COPA chief administrator, wondered in a letter last week whether “the officers could have seen this seat belt violation given their location relative to [the] vehicle and the dark tints on vehicle windows.”

“[The incident] started with an unconstitutional, pretextual, and unnecessary stop,” claimed an attorney representing the family.

COPA has called for four of the five officers involved to be suspended while an investigation into the matter continues.

On Tuesday night, Reed’s younger brother, 24-year-old Julius Reed, was arrested during a protest that broke out near a Chicago police station after footage of the shootout was released. The younger Reed was charged with one count of misdemeanor battery and two counts of misdemeanor resisting arrest, prompting demands for his release on social media.

“He is #DexterReed’s lil Bro & 20 Cops swarmed him last night, slammed him to the ground for no good reason & are currently detaining him!” tweeted GoodKidsMadCity, a race-based group that calls for abolishing police.

Whether Julius Reed remains in custody is unclear.

Democratic Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson also seemed to side with Reed’s family over members of his city’s police force. “As mayor and as a father raising a family, including two Black boys on the West Side of Chicago, I am personally devastated to see yet another young Black man lose his life during an interaction with the police,” he said. “Our heart breaks for the family of Dexter Reed. They are grieving the loss of a son, a brother, and a nephew.”

Others, however, suggested that return fire was inevitable once Reed apparently fired first. “You can’t shoot a cop and expect not to get shot in return,” former Chicago police officer Charles Ramsey said on CNN, noting he does have some concerns about the final three shots on Reed. “That’s just the way it is.”

Professor David Harris of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law made a similar statement to CBS 2. “If you fire at police, you should expect return fire,” Harris said. “There’s just no other way of looking at it.”

Even CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez wrote in a since-deleted tweet, “The initial response from police here isn’t so much what’s in question. You get shot at, you shoot back.”

Former Police First Deputy Supt. Riccio also noted that Reed was “carrying a gun unlawfully in his vehicle” and disobeyed officers’ commands.

“You know, what was his intention?”