Investigations
Potential Settlement Reached in Lawsuit Filed by Family of Dexter Reed Over Fatal Police Shooting: Records
Chicago police officers surround an SUV driven by Dexter Reed moments before shots are fired on March 21, 2024. (Civilian Office of Police Accountability)
City lawyers have agreed to settle the lawsuit filed by the family of Dexter Reed, who was killed during a West Side traffic stop on March 21, according to court records obtained by WTTW News.
That agreement must be approved by the Chicago City Council by Feb. 10, according to a joint filing from the lawyers representing the city and Reed’s mother, Nicole Banks. The exact amount of the settlement was not immediately clear, but the City Council is only required to approve settlements of more than $100,000.
The City Council’s Finance Committee is scheduled to meet on Dec. 10, but it is not clear whether this proposal will be considered for approval.
Andrew M. Stroth, the lawyer for Reed’s family, declined to comment to WTTW News.
A spokesperson for the city’s top lawyer, Corporation Counsel Mary Richardson Lowry, declined to comment on active litigation.
Four officers fired 96 shots in 41 seconds at Reed on March 21, hitting him 13 times, shortly after he shot and wounded an officer, according to a preliminary investigation by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, known as COPA. Reed was stopped by a tactical team of officers in plainclothes driving an unmarked SUV.
WTTW News reported Oct. 23 that COPA identified a troubling pattern of undocumented and aggressive stops on the city’s West Side at least a year before Reed’s death. The agency had evidence that officers were routinely engaging in misconduct that violated Chicago Police Department rules and put Chicagoans at risk of a violent encounter with officers for at least a year.
The lawsuit filed by Reed’s family alleged his civil rights were violated by the officers who stopped and fatally shot him. That lawsuit argued that the city and police department should be held liable for Reed's death, because officials knew officers were improperly stopping drivers and pedestrians on the West Side and did nothing to stop it.
A spokesperson for COPA said its probe into the shooting remains open and active.
Mayor Brandon Johnson has said the day that the footage of Reed’s killing was released was among the worst days he has spent as mayor of Chicago. Johnson taught civics at Westinghouse College Prep, where Reed went to high school and was a basketball standout.
Officers told COPA investigators at the scene of the fatal shooting they stopped Reed because they believed he was not wearing his seat belt, a violation, according to reports signed by the officers involved and released by COPA because they are public records.
The Harrison (11th) Police District on the West Side, one of the most violent in the city, had the highest number and percentage of traffic stops of any of the city’s 22 police districts, accounting for nearly 10.5% of all traffic stops made by CPD officers in 2023, according to according to a report from Impact for Equity, a nonprofit advocacy and research organization that has helped lead the push to reform the Chicago Police Department.
Most residents who live in the district are Black.
WTTW News reported in April that the five officers who stopped Reed had racked up three dozen complaints in the months before the March 21 shooting. Those complaints were provided to WTTW News by COPA after a Freedom of Information Act request.
A spokesperson for the Chicago Police Department said all four officers remained on administrative leave after Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling declined to strip them of their police powers, as recommended by COPA Chief Administrator Andrea Kersten.
Kersten told Snelling that recommendation was based on “grave concerns about the officers’ ability to assess what is a necessary, reasonable, and proportional use of deadly force,” according to a letter released by COPA in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by WTTW News.
One of the officers fired at least 50 times at Reed, including three times while he was motionless on the ground, according to Kersten’s letter to Snelling. That officer reloaded his weapon twice, while three other officers reloaded their weapon once, according to the letter.
That letter also questioned the basis for the traffic stop that led to Reed’s death.
“Specifically, 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 (his) vehicle windows,” Kersten wrote. “This evidence raises serious concerns about the validity of the traffic stop that led to the officers’ encounter with (Reed).”
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
