Dexter Reed shot and killed by police in a traffic stop. Allegedly driving without a seat belt, while Black.
Reed was shot 96 times, most shots came after he exited his car unarmed.
It all seems so very familiar of the police killing of Laquan McDonald in 2014.
McDonald was shot 16 times by a Chicago police officer.
I still have that video image in my head of bullets being fired into McDonald after he was lying on the ground, smoke coming from his lifeless body.
I can’t not see it.
The police killing of Laquan McDonald was a major factor in driving Mayor Rahm Emanuel and states attorney Anita Alvarez from office.
The police killing of Dexter Reed last month after a traffic stop brings all that back.
Reed was pulled over for not wearing a seat belt.
Police video of the killing was released today.
Reed was shot by officers 96 times in 41 seconds.
Five officers fired on Reed. Four reloaded and continued to shoot.
Dexter Reed was a Westinghouse High School graduate and currently a college student.
Reed was stopped in the 3800 block of West Ferdinand in Humboldt Park on March 21 “for purportedly not wearing a seatbelt,” according to COPA.
Body-worn camera footage shows officers hopping out of an unmarked vehicle and approaching Reed’s GMC Terrain, parked over a crosswalk behind the police vehicle. Reed briefly rolls his window down as directed, then begins rolling it back up.
“I ain’t doing nothing,” Reed says as an officer tells him to keep the window up and unlock the doors.
A series of initial gunshots ring out as officers duck for cover and call for help over police radio.
As the gunfire continues, Reed is seen walking around the back of his SUV before he’s struck and falls down.
Reed, who was unarmed by this time, is briefly seen lying on the ground as officers continue to fire shots.
“Don’t f—-ing move,” one officer says as she approaches him. “F---, f----, f---, f---, f---, f---, f---. Don’t move!”
As another officer walks alongside the bullet-riddled GMC, he reports that Reed’s gun was left on a seat.
Shortly after the shooting, officers are seen tending to the wounded officer and another cop who says he’s “freaking out.” An officer recording the video has a clear message: “Don’t say anything, you hear me? Be quiet.” (WBEZ)
Just a week ago a report was issued by a coalition of groups which demonstrated that Chicago police continued to target Black and Latino drivers with a massive campaign of traffic stops that failed to make the city safer in 2023.
This despite promises from Supt. Larry Snelling to focus on dangerous drivers and criminal activity.
Chicago police continued to target Black and Latino drivers with a massive campaign of traffic stops that failed to make the city safer in 2023, despite promises from Supt. Larry Snelling to focus on dangerous drivers and criminal activity, according to a new report from a coalition of groups.
The vast majority of the more than 537,000 traffic stops made by Chicago police in 2023 were based on dubious evidence of minor violations that took direct aim at Black and Latino Chicagoans but spared White Chicagoans, according to a new report from Impact for Equity, a nonprofit advocacy and research organization that has helped lead the push to reform the Chicago Police Department.
“There is clear evidence that there is discrimination happening here and it needs to be addressed,” said Amy Thompson, staff counsel for Impact for Equity’s criminal legal system division.
Since 2015, Black Chicagoans were six times more likely to be stopped by police while driving than White Chicagoans. Latino drivers were twice more likely to be stopped than White drivers, according to the report. (WTTW)