GARFIELD PARK — The family of Dexter Reed, the man police fatally shot last month, is suing the city and the officers involved in his death.
In a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday morning, Reed’s family alleges five officers targeted the 26-year-old in a “predatory, violent, unlawful traffic stop that ended with officers shooting Dexter 96 times in 41 seconds.”
The wrongful death lawsuit alleges the officers, who are part of a tactical unit in the West Side’s 11th District, violated numerous laws and department policies while pulling over Reed for a seatbelt violation.
It also alleges the officers escalated the situation by pointing their guns “in a threatening manner” and cursing at Reed while dressed in plainclothes instead of police uniforms. The lawsuit also claims police used excessive, deadly force as an initial measure rather than a last resort, handcuffed Reed without first assessing his need for life-sustaining measures and failed to provide him medical attention, according to the lawsuit.
Videos do show officers performed chest compressions on Reed after he had been handcuffed and was lying in the street, bleeding, for some time.
“The initial stop was unlawful and pretextual. Defendant Officers had no reasonable suspicion that Dexter violated any law, and they falsely stated otherwise in official CPD reports,” according to the lawsuit. “The officers acted pursuant to CPD’s longstanding and systemic unlawful policies and practices.”
The suit seeks accountability for the officers as well as damages for Reed’s family.
Andrew Stroth, an attorney for the family who filed the lawsuit, said officers failed to do their jobs correctly and need to “reacquaint” themselves with the consent decree that is supposed to mandate reforms at the Police Department. The consent decree was put in place after the Department of Justice investigated the department following an officer fatally shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald in 2014.
“We’re asking Mayor Brandon Johnson [and] the leadership of Chicago to work with us and follow the consent decree so this doesn’t happen to another individual in our communities,” Stroth told reporters at a Wednesday morning press conference outside the 11th Police District station, 3151 W. Harrison St.
Porscha Banks, Reed’s older sister, renewed the family’s calls for justice and for the officers involved in his death to be arrested and charged.
“Me and my family, all we want is justice,” Banks said. “Dexter was not in a gang or walking down the street looking for trouble. What happened to Dexter is unacceptable, and I hope that these officers are held accountable for the actions. They need to be taken off the streets and locked up …. before they scare anyone else.”
The same officers who shot Reed are being investigated for other traffic stops that those drivers said were unwarranted — including a stop that happened less than a month before Reed’s killing.
Police shot and killed Reed on March 21 after a traffic stop in the 3800 block of West Ferdinand Street. Officials said earlier this month the deadly encounter began because police stopped Reed for not wearing a seat belt, but it’s not clear why officers were following him or what led to the incident.
Reed shot at officers first, hitting one in his forearm — then four officers shot about 96 times in 41 seconds, according the Civilian Office of Police Accountability. In videos, officers are seen firing at Reed as he laid on the ground.
The police oversight agency did not say how many shots Reed allegedly fired before officers fired back
Four officers who were involved in the shooting were put on a 30-day administrative leave, which is standard after use of force incidents. A fifth officer was wounded when Reed shot him, officials have said.
The watchdog has recommended four officers be relieved of police powers while the investigation continues.
Cameron Barnes, the youth director for the Rainbow PUSH Coalition that has supported the family, addressed “the elephant in the room” at Wednesday’s press conference, referring to the fact that Reed shot at the police first.
“People are trying to use that as a justification as for why this execution has happened, and I want us to continue to look at the chronological order of events — that shot would never have happened had not an unmarked tactical unit … accost this young man in his vehicle with tinted windows under the notion that he didn’t have on a seat belt,” Barnes said.
The lawsuit doesn’t mention Reed firing a gun, and the family’s attorneys have cast doubt on him firing first, saying the Civilian Office of Police Accountability investigation will reveal the full facts.
Since the fatal shooting, police records uncovered by the Sun-Times and the Tribune 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, according to the Sun-Times.
Stroth and Reed’s family declined to comment Wednesday on Reed’s mental health challenges related to the incident.
Reed had physical and mental disabilities and had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, which “adversely affected [his] ability to work, to process and remember information, and to communicate,” according to the lawsuit.
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