City's speedy decision to settle with Dexter Reed's family branded 'fishy' by Police Committee chair

The chairman of the City Council's Police Committee raised serious questions Thursday about the city's decision to reach an undisclosed settlement with the family of Dexter Reed, who was fatally shot by Chicago police officers in March after Reed shot and wounded one of them during a traffic stop.

The timing of the settlement and the speed in which it was reached led Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29th) to suggest the deck may have been stacked against the five tactical officers from the beginning.

Reed, 26, was shot on March 21 in the 3800 block of West Ferdinand in the Harrison District, a jurisdiction among the most violent in Chicago.

Four officers fired 96 shots in 41 seconds at Reed — and struck him 13 times. The officers opened fire after Reed fired first, striking one of five tactical officers in the hand. All of the officers were dressed in plainclothes and piled into a single SUV.

In the days and hours leading up to Reed’s death, those same five officers conducted 50 traffic stops on Chicago’s West Side. None of those 50 stops generated a single ticket. When the lawsuit was first announced in April, Reed's mother, Nicole Banks, said the officers had "executed him."

The Reed family's attorney, Andrew Stroth, declined to comment on the settlement agreement.

Taliferro, a former Chicago police sergeant and internal affairs investigator who now chairs the City Council's Police Committee, labeled the settlement “very hasty” and called the timing of it “fishy.”

Taliaferro believes the shooting was justified. "Mr. Reed had a gun," he said. "He pointed the gun at the officers and pulled the trigger and shot at the officers first. The officers responded for the protection of themselves and anyone in that vicinity that could have been harmed from Mr. Reed shooting. Under those circumstances, that’s self-defense.”

Ald. Matt O’Shea (19th), whose Far Southwest Side ward is home to scores of Chicago police officers, said he was shocked that the city “moved so quickly” to settle with Reed’s family while the city still hasn’t “settled cases from years and years ago.”

“Dexter Reed pulled out a gun and shot at police officers," O'Shea said. “Chicago Police officers — any law enforcement officer — has a right to defend themselves.”

Newly-elected Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke inherited the case from her predecessor Kim Foxx. Foxx had joined Mayor Brandon Johnson and Andrea Kersten, chief administrator of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, at a City Hall news conference to release video of the Reed shooting and disclose basic facts of the case just days after the incident.

Johnson appeared determined to contrast his transparent handling of the Reed shooting case with former Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s notorious and politically fatal decision to keep the Laquan McDonald shooting video under wraps until after the 2015 mayoral election.

In 2014, McDonald, 17, was shot to death by Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke, who later was convicted of the teen’s murder. Emanuel released the video that captured the shooting only after a judge forced him to do so.

At the time of the Reed shooting, Johnson called the footage “deeply disturbing,” but walked a fine line between mourning Reed and offering prayers for the injured officer.

“ As mayor and as a father raising a family, including two Black boys on the West Side of Chicago, I’m personally devastated to see yet another young Black man lose his life during an interaction with the police.”

In their lawsuit against the city, the Reed family argued that the five officers “targeted Dexter during a predatory, violent, unlawful traffic stop” that culminated in the fatal shooting.

The family claimed Reed's death was "directly attributable to CPD’s longstanding practice of engaging in unlawful traffic stops." Despite COPA's finding that Reed fired first, the lawsuit held that Reed "clearly presented no threat" to the officers.

Prior to the settlement, the city's outside attorneys sought to dismiss a range of counts in the suit, including claims the department had engaged in a “pattern and practice” of conducting pretextual traffic stops and engaging in excessive force.

Taliaferro predicted that the undisclosed settlement would have a tough time winning approval from the City Council's Finance Committee and the full City Council.

Emanuel agreed to a $5 million settlement in the Laquan McDonald case — before a lawsuit had even been filed by the 17-year-old’s family. But recent history suggests the timing of the Reed settlement is unusual. Lawsuits are still pending in three other recent, high-profile police shootings — two of which happened three years before Reed was shot and killed.

Disciplinary action has already been either recommended or meted out in each of those cases. In two of them, involving the 2021 fatal shootings of Anthony Alvarez and Adam Toledo, prosecutors have announced that criminal charges will not be filed.