Crime & Law

Top Cop Agrees That CPD Officers Who Stopped, Shot Dexter Reed Should Be Suspended for Violating Rights of 2 Other Drivers

The Chicago police officers who pulled over Dexter Reed and killed him in a barrage of gunfire after he fired at officers violated the constitutional rights of at least two other drivers on Chicago’s West Side less than three weeks before the fatal shooting and should be suspended, the agency tasked with investigating police misconduct and Supt. Larry Snelling agreed, records show.

The Civilian Office of Police Accountability has not yet completed its probe into the March 21, 2024, traffic stop of Reed or the shooting that killed him, records show. Four officers fired 96 shots in 41 seconds at Reed, hitting him 13 times, shortly after Reed shot and wounded a fifth officer, according to a preliminary investigation by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, known as COPA.

The tactical team that stopped Reed improperly stopped and searched Chicagoans during two separate traffic stops on March 1, 2024, and March 6, 2024, according to conclusions reached by Snelling and COPA officials. It is the first determination that officers assigned to tactical teams in the Harrison (11th) Police District on the West Side, one of the most violent in the city, violated dozens of department rules during multiple traffic stops.

Snelling concurred with COPA’s conclusions and found those violations merited suspensions ranging from three days to 25 days for each officer that participated in the stop. COPA had recommended suspensions of no more than 30 days for each officer who participated in each of the two stops, according to documents published by the agency on April 24.

Snelling made his disciplinary decisions in both probes on March 5, records show. It is unclear whether the officers have served those suspensions, since they can appeal Snelling’s determination.

In all, Snelling and COPA agreed that five officers collectively committed 47 violations of departmental rules designed to protect the rights of Chicagoans during two traffic stops and should be suspended for a total of 91 days, records show.

None of the officers responded to emails from WTTW News requesting comment on COPA’s findings and Snelling’s decision to suspend them.

Tim Grace, a lawyer for the Fraternal Order of Police who said he represents the officers, defended the validity of the traffic stops made by the officers in a statement to WTTW News.

“Each and every one of these stops was supported by reasonable articulable suspicion that a crime has or was about to be committed and the majority of the stops were supported by actual probable cause,” Grace said. “The officers look forward to presenting their cases to reasonable arbitrators and we are confident that COPA’s incomplete and naive approach to over site will once again be exposed.”

Two Traffic Stops Separated by 15 Days and Less Than 1 Mile

Fifteen days before a tactical team of five officers pulled over the SUV Reed was driving, four of those officers stopped a Black Maserati less than a mile away from the intersection on the border between Humboldt Park and Garfield Park where Reed would die, records show.

The two stops are strikingly similar, as described in the final summary report of the probe into the March 6, 2024, stop and the preliminary report into the incident that would result in Reed’s death.

Both Reed and the driver of the Maserati, whose name is redacted from the records released by COPA in keeping with city rules, were stopped on suspicion for failing to wear a seat belt, records show.

But when an officer approached the Maserati, he told the driver he had been driving too fast while eating. A second officer told the driver of the Maserati he had been stopped because his windows were tinted too dark. The windows of the SUV Reed would drive through the same neighborhood were also tinted, records show.

“COPA questions whether the officers would have been able to clearly observe the positioning of (redacted’s) seatbelt given the tints on the windows of Maserati,” according to the final summary report of the March 6, 2024 report.

COPA officials raised identical concerns about the validity of the 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,” former Chief Administrator Andrea Kersten wrote to Snelling in April 2024. “This evidence raises serious concerns about the validity of the traffic stop that led to the officers’ encounter with (Reed).”

The driver of the Maserati gave officers his license, but officers did not use the computer in their vehicle to check whether there were any outstanding warrants for his arrest, records show. Initially, the driver of the Maserati refused an order from a third officer to get out of his car, and asked the officers to request their supervisor come to the scene, records show.

Two officers told the driver of the Maserati that if they called a supervisor, he’d go to jail for obstruction, records show. After that, the driver got out of his car, and a fourth officer lifted up his sweatshirt to search for a weapon. The driver was not armed, records show.

Four officers searched the Maserati, looking in and around both seats in the front of the car and the back seats, records show.

During the search, the driver demanded the officers’ badge numbers. Officers again threatened him with arrest, and one used profanity in her response, records show.

Investigators concluded that the officers did not have a reasonable basis to stop the Maserati, and “impermissibly extended the duration of (redacted) stop in violation of the Fourth Amendment,” COPA concluded.

The officers should not have searched the driver because they “lacked any reasonable belief that (redacted) was armed and dangerous” and the search of the Maserati “exceeded the legal parameters of a protective sweep of a vehicle,” COPA concluded.

In addition, two officers violated CPD’s rules that prohibit members of CPD from retaliating against members of the public for requesting police services. The driver should not have been threatened with arrest for requesting a supervisor come to the scene of the traffic stop, COPA concluded.

In all, six officers stopped the Maserati, including the five officers that would stop the SUV driven by Reed just two weeks later. The other officer who participated in the traffic stop should be suspended for three days, Snelling concluded.

“These combined circumstances, especially if such behavior is repeated numerous times over the course of other interactions with members of the public, have the potential to frustrate judicially mandated police oversight and reform and to undermine trust between CPD and members of the public,” COPA concluded in its final summary of its probe into the March 6, 2024, traffic stop.

COPA also determined a separate traffic stop on March 1, 2024, conducted by four of the officers who would later stop Reed and the driver of the Maserati, along with two other officers, was also improper.

In that incident, two men were sitting in a parked car a mile from where Reed would be killed 20 days later. Officers blocked the car in with two vehicles and demanded that both men get out of the car and searched them, records show.

Their car was also searched, records show.

The officers did not immediately activate their body-worn cameras, resulting in the first 90 seconds of the traffic stop from being recorded, records show. The officers threatened to arrest one of the men when he asked for their names and badge numbers, records show.

Officers told investigators they blocked the parked car from driving away because the headlights of the vehicle were illuminated while it was parked, in violation of city ordinance.

However, that ordinance only applies to unoccupied vehicles, COPA concluded.

Because officers wrongly applied the city ordinance, the stop was “unlawful” and officers had no right to detain or search the two men, COPA concluded.

However, the officers’ search of the vehicle was proper because one of the men was smoking a marijuana cigarette while sitting in the parked car, a violation of state law, COPA concluded.

Neither man was arrested or cited as a result of the traffic stop, records show.

In all, six officers stopped the parked car, including four of the officers who would stop the SUV driven by Reed nearly three weeks later. The other two officers who participated in the traffic stop should be suspended for three days and seven days each, Snelling concluded.

Officers’ Status Unclear

A CPD spokesperson did not respond to an inquiry from WTTW News about whether the officers who stopped and shot Reed have returned to active duty. Snelling declined to relieve them of their police powers, as the former head of COPA urged more than a year ago.

One of the five officers who stopped Reed, Alexandria “Ally” Giampapa, resigned from CPD in November and is now a police officer in Tipp City, Ohio. Giampapa, who did not respond to a request for comment from WTTW News, violated nine departmental rules during the March 6, 2024, traffic stop and would have received a three-day suspension from Snelling had she not left CPD, records show. Giampapa did not participate in the March 1, 2024, traffic stop.

It is unclear whether Officer Gregory Saint Louis, who was shot in the hand by Reed during the March 21, 2024, traffic stop, remains a member of CPD. Saint Louis’ name did not appear in the city’s database of employees on Friday.

Saint Louis did not respond to an email sent by WTTW News to his CPD email address, which appears to still be active.

Snelling determined Saint Louis should serve a four-day suspension for violating five rules during the March 1, 2024, traffic stop, records show. Saint Louis improperly detained the driver, searched them, threatened to arrest the driver for obstruction, failed to accurately document the traffic stop and the investigatory stop with the proper forms, and failed to document the stop by turning on his body-worn camera, Snelling determined.

Saint Louis should serve an additional five-day suspension for violating four rules during the March 6, 2024, traffic stop, records show. Saint Louis improperly detained the driver, searched their vehicle and failed to accurately document the stop and search, Snelling determined.

The three other officers who stopped Reed and participated in the two other improper stops in the days before Reed was killed were Officers Victor Pacheco, Aubrey Webb and Thomas Spanos.

Pacheco and Webb earn $108,000 annually, while Spanos earns $98,000, city records show.

• Snelling determined Pacheco should serve a five-day suspension for violating six rules during the March 1, 2024, traffic stop, records show. Pacheco improperly detained the driver, failed to identify himself, searched the driver without justification, failed to properly document the stop and search and did not activate his body-worn camera, records show.
• Pacheco should serve an additional 10-day suspension for violating five rules during the March 6, 2024, traffic stop, records show. Pacheco improperly detained the driver, failed to provide the driver with a receipt documenting the search, threatened the driver with arrest for obstruction after he requested a sergeant and failed to properly document the search, Snelling concluded.
• Snelling determined Webb should serve a 25-day suspension for violating five rules during the March 1, 2024, traffic stop, records show. Webb improperly detained and searched the driver,  failed to properly document the stop and search and failed to turn on his body-worn camera to record the stop, Snelling concluded.
• Webb should serve an additional 25-day suspension for violating three rules during the March 6, 2024, traffic stop, records show. Webb improperly detained the driver and failed to properly document the traffic stop and search, Snelling concluded.
• Snelling determined Spanos should serve a seven-day suspension for violating six rules during the March 1, 2024, traffic stop, records show. Spanos improperly detained the driver, failed to identify himself, failed to properly document the stop and search and did not record the interaction on his body-worn camera.
• Spanos should serve an additional 10-day suspension for violating three rules during the March 6, 2024, traffic stop, records show. Spanos improperly detained the driver, failed to provide him with an investigatory stop receipt and failed to document the traffic stop as required.

Lawyer: Reed Killed by ‘Rogue Unit’ of Officers

Reed’s family has sued the city, alleging his civil rights were violated by the officers who stopped and fatally shot him. That COPA and Snelling agree the officers violated department rules in other traffic stops could help Reed’s family prove that the city and CPD should be held liable for his death, because officials knew officers were improperly stopping drivers and pedestrians on the West Side before Reed’s death and did nothing to stop it.

Andrew M. Stroth, the lawyer representing Reed’s family, has said the 26-year-old was killed by a “rogue unit” of CPD officers.

The Chicago City Council’s Finance Committee voted 12-15 on April 11 to reject a recommendation from the city’s lawyers to pay Reed’s family to resolve the lawsuit that alleges his civil rights were violated by the officers who stopped and fatally shot him. The City Council has yet to take a final vote on the proposed settlement.

In October 2024, WTTW News reported that COPA identified a troubling pattern of undocumented and aggressive traffic stops on the city’s West Side at least a year before Reed’s death. But COPA did not alert the commander of the Harrison Police District until six days after Reed’s death that the agency had received numerous complaints related to CPD members “detaining, searching, and/or subjecting citizens to force. COPA’s investigation of these complaints has been impeded by a consistent lack of documentation, Body Worn Camera (BWC) footage, and accurate recordkeeping.”

COPA has concluded its probe of nine other complaints filed against officers assigned to the Harrison Police District between June 2023 and March 2024, but has not yet released those results, while seven other complaints remain open and under investigation, according to information obtained by WTTW News as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request. An additional 31 complaints were closed with no findings, records show.

Kersten resigned as head of COPA on Feb. 13 after Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability President Anthony Driver Jr. and Vice President Remel Terry informed her the commission planned to recommend her termination for a number of failures they said had compromised Chicago’s police accountability system, eroding public confidence in policing and police oversight.

COPA should have acted sooner to raise the alarm about the pattern of improper traffic stops on the West Side, Driver and Terry told Kersten.

“This failure may have put Chicago residents at greater risk of harm and resulted in a missed opportunity to address a frequent source of complaints,” Driver and Terry wrote to Kersten. “This demonstrates a failure of leadership, compromises public safety, and undermines COPA’s mission to address patterns of police misconduct, and make policy recommendations to improve CPD and reduce incidents of police misconduct.”

Neither Stop Documented Properly: Officials

Neither of the stops on March 1, 2024, and March 6, 2024, were properly documented by the participating officers, according to COPA’s probe and Snelling’s determination.

CPD’s traffic stop policy, last revised seven years ago, requires officers to document every time they stop a driver regardless of the reason by not only notifying dispatchers but also filling out a form that is better known as a “blue card.”

That paper card, filled out by hand, requires officers to document the reason for the stop, the driver’s name, address, gender, year of birth and “the officer’s subjective determination of the race of the driver of the vehicle.”

Officers are prohibited from asking drivers to identify their race, according to the policy. Each form identifies the officer by name and badge number.

In addition, officers must record the make and year of the vehicle they stopped as well as the date, the location of the stop and the time that the stop began and ended. Officers must also record whether they asked to search the vehicle, whether a search was conducted and the reason for that search, according to the policy.

The officer is also required to document whether drugs, weapons or other illegal items were recovered during the stop, according to the policy.

In all, CPD officials reported to the Illinois Department of Transportation that officers made 295,846 traffic stops in 2024. However, there were an additional 210,622 traffic stops made in 2024 that were not documented, making it impossible to know whether drivers’ constitutional rights were protected during those stops.

Officers detained and frisked the drivers in both of the stops on March 1, 2024, and March 6, 2024. Both cars were also searched, records show. That requires officers to fill out not just a blue card but also a second form, known as an investigatory stop report, to document not only the officers’ “reasonable articulable suspicion that the person is committing, about to commit, or has committed a criminal offense” but also information about the drivers’ race and gender.

The officers who participated in both stops did not complete those forms as required, according to COPA’s investigation and Snelling’s determination.

In addition to serving their suspensions, all of the officers must be retrained on CPD’s rules governing traffic stops and investigatory stops, Snelling determined. Several officers must also be retrained on CPD’s body-worn camera policy and the rules against retaliation.

Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]

---