HUMBOLDT PARK — Remnants of broken car lights, shattered glass windows and four tall candles sit at the corner where Dexter Reed was fatally shot last month.
A few neighbors sat outside Tuesday near the 3800 block of West Ferdinand Street, enjoying the weather and chatting with friends as kids biked along the street and music blared from cars.
Meanwhile, footage of Reed’s death at the hands of police circulated widely, showing a shootout that unfolded on the Humboldt Park block.
For some neighbors, fear and shock linger from the March 21 shooting, while the details made apparent in the video highlight a longstanding issue of over-policing and the misuse of police powers in the area.
Reed, 26, was fatally shot by police after a traffic stop on Ferdinand Street turned into a shootout.
Five tactical team officers pulled over Reed for not wearing a seat belt, a basis for the stop that has been called into question by investigators. As officers shout at Reed to unlock the doors to his SUV, the 26-year-old opens fire, hitting an officer in his forearm, according the Civilian Office of Police Accountability.
Police then shot at Reed about 96 times in 41 seconds, according to the agency. At least one officer fired at Reed as he laid on the ground, and three of them reloaded their guns to continue firing, according to the oversight agency.
Angie Smith, who has lived just around the corner her whole life, remembers hearing the gunshots and running inside.
“We all thought we were going to go because the shots, they kept coming,” Smith said. “What if kids were out there at that time, or innocent bystanders? There were, like, four cars that actually got messed up” from the shooting.
Though Reed may have shot first, there was no reason for officers to shoot at him 96 times in a residential area, and there was no reason to pull over Reed for not wearing a seat belt, Smith said.
Smith said she’s seen officers in the area stop her friends and neighbors for similar low-level traffic infractions, and she said the incident points to a racist system that has divided cops and the Black community.
Smith said she has no relationship with officers who patrol her block and does not understand why the tactical officers who shot Reed were there in the first place.
“The cops [here] are not really doing the job of a police officer,” Smith said. “They are here really intimidating people just because they have a badge. … They are not serving and protecting us anymore. It seems like they are here just because they have a quota to hit.”
Another man who lives nearby, who didn’t want his name published for fear of retaliation, called the shooting abnormal, especially over an alleged seat belt violation. Shootings in the area used to be more common, but the fatal incident — and the amount of shots fired — was excessive and shocking, he said.
The video released Tuesday confirms what he heard that evening, the man said. He said he believes the first shot to be from Reed and then the police “went to war in retaliation,” firing dozens of rounds at Reed and his car.
“Nobody goes to jail for not wearing a seat belt,” he said. “And it doesn’t make him look good because he shot at the police. … It was two different gunshots, you can tell.”
The neighbor, who has lived in the area for over 16 years, said the shooting shows police are still targeting Black and Brown drivers in the area. He doesn’t want this violence to taint his community given that crime has decreased in recent years.
“They used to come over here and just grab people. It didn’t matter whether you were sitting in a car or on the street,” he said. “They used to sit out here for 48 hours straight just to keep the drug traffic down, but I do see some things have changed … but people here still don’t trust them as much.”
Reed was from Garfield Park. Neighbors who spoke to Block Club Tuesday said he wasn’t known in the neighborhood.
A man named Johnny, who didn’t want to give his last name, said he wasn’t home when the shooting happened but described the incident as “everyday life out here.” He said he doesn’t have a relationship with officers in the neighborhood, nor does he want to.
“I just keep my head down and mind my own business,” Johnny said.
Canvassers from the Community Safety Coordination Center within the Mayor’s Office were also in the neighborhood Tuesday, letting residents know of mental health services in partnership with three area health and social services agencies.
BUILD Chicago, 461 N. Avers Ave., will provide on-site mental health services 4-7 p.m. Monday, according to a letter given to neighbors and shared with Block Club.
Some Humboldt Park neighbors joined the Reed family’s plea for justice for the 26-year-old. His family wants the officers fired and held accountable.
“I hope they get justice for the situation,” Smith said. “Even though we don’t know all [the details], he did not deserve be killed like that.”
‘I Will Not Let Them Rest’
A few miles south of the Humboldt Park block where Reed was killed, dozens of protesters joined his family Tuesday evening at the Harrison (11th) Police District, 3151 W. Harrison St.
Members of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression and the Chicago Torture Justice Center called for the firing of the officers who fired round after round at Reed.
“We’re looking at a lynching, executed by police officers,” Frank Chapman, of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, said at the rally Tuesday night. “We’re looking at another Laquan McDonald.”
Meanwhile, a police supporter shouted at the crowd, saying, “Dexter Reed shot the Chicago police.” He was chased away by protesters and escorted into the station by officers.
Porscha Banks, Reed’s older sister, called out each police officer by name. She said the police response was excessive, even if her brother shot first.
“He was a sweet, brave, ambitious, respectful young guy,” Banks said. “Whether he shot or not, he should not have been murdered. I will not let them rest without suffering for what they did for my older brother.”
After a scuffle between police and protesters, at least one protester was taken away in an ambulance. But calls for peace prevailed and protesters urged one another to keep showing up to City Council, police board and neighborhood meetings to put pressure on local leaders.
“It’s sad for me and my family and other families like us that have gone through this,” said Roosevelt Banks, Reed’s uncle. “I would like to know that my nephew will stop this.”
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