Videos Show Chicago Police Fired Nearly 100 Shots in 41 Seconds During Fatal Traffic Stop

CHICAGO– Plainclothes police officers in Chicago fired nearly 100 gunshots over 41 seconds during a traffic stop that left one man dead and one officer injured, according to graphic video footage released by a police surveillance agency on Tuesday.

Five officers from a tactical unit sitting in an unmarked police vehicle surrounded an SUV driven by Dexter Reed last month, allegedly because he was not wearing a seat belt. Video shows the 26-year-old black man briefly rolling down a window, then raising it and refusing to exit the vehicle as more officers arrived, shouting commands and drawing weapons.

The Civilian Office of Police Accountability said preliminary evidence showed Reed fired first, wounding an officer in the Humboldt Park neighborhood on the city’s west side. Then four officers returned fire, firing 96 bullets.

The gunfire continued even after “Reed exited his vehicle and fell to the ground,” COPA said in releasing the body-worn camera footage, 911 calls and police reports.

The released videos offer a fuller perspective than what police initially offered last month.

Police Chief Larry Snelling previously said the March 21 shooting began with a traffic stop and described it as an “exchange of gunfire.”

Family members have questioned authorities’ account of the shooting, seeking answers about why Reed was arrested. Andrew Stroth, an attorney for the family, said Reed’s mother, sister, uncle and father saw the video Tuesday and were emotionally distraught. He said they remember the young man as a talented high school basketball player with aspirations of becoming a sports broadcaster.

“I really can’t explain the pain that me and my family are going through, but I just hope that there are people who understand that he was a son, a brother, an uncle and loved ones,” he said. Reed’s sister, Porscha Banks, told reporters. “He was someone who was very important.”

Stroth called it an unconstitutional police stop with plainclothes officers who did not announce they were police. He said the family wants to see a speedy investigation and for the department to better comply with a court-supervised reform plan.

“Nothing will bring Dexter back, but efforts should certainly be made to ensure this does not happen to another family,” he said.

Police spokesman Thomas Ahern said Tuesday that the department was cooperating with the investigation.

“We cannot make a decision on this shooting until all the facts are known and this investigation is completed,” he said.

The videos show multiple perspectives, including from the officer who was shot. But there is no clear footage of Reed’s shooting. A firearm was later recovered from the car.

The tactical unit drives to the scene with multiple officers shouting profanity-laced orders for Reed to first lower the window and then open the door.

Then gunshots ring out. A man who called 911 to report the shooting described it as “shooting like they were fighting a war in Vietnam.”

Reed exits the vehicle and collapses to the ground, landing face down with his head near the rear passenger wheel and wearing only one shoe. Blood runs into a nearby gutter. Images of the car show dozens of bullet holes. The other shoe is just outside the driver’s door.

“Do not move! Don’t move!” The officers yell at Reed, raising bloody, sunken hands looking for a gun, but finding none. They handcuff him while he remains face down and motionless.

“I don’t know where the gun is,” an officer said. They later use a flashlight to look inside the vehicle and locate the weapon on the passenger seat.

“He started shooting at us,” said another officer.

More officers and ambulances then arrive on the scene.

“We were all shooting,” an officer says repeatedly.

Mayor Brandon Johnson promised a full investigation and said Tuesday’s release was part of an effort to be more transparent.

“Attempts to withhold or delay information are mistakes of the past,” he said at a news conference with COPA and the Cook County Prosecutor’s Office. “As mayor and as a father raising a family, including two black boys on the West Side of Chicago, I am personally devastated to see yet another young black man lose his life during an interaction with police.”

He said the city does not condone shootings against police officers and noted that the officer, who is also black, suffered a wrist injury but that it could have been much worse. If the bullet had gone an inch the other way, Johnson said he would be here “over the death of another black man.”

The officers were placed on administrative leave for 30 days due to the investigations by COPA and the Cook County Prosecutor’s Office.

State’s Attorney Kim Foxx said her office will determine whether the officers’ use of force was justified or warranted criminal charges.

“I can assure you that our pursuit of justice will be relentless, guided by the facts, grounded in evidence and the law,” she said.

The Cook County medical examiner’s office classified Reed’s death as a homicide and reported he died of “multiple” gunshot wounds.

COPA was created in 2016 after the city was forced to release dashcam video of then-officer Jason Van Dyke shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, contradicting officers’ story that the teen was armed with a knife shot at the police. Her responsibilities include investigating police shootings.

The police department has been under a consent decree since 2019, issued after the U.S. Department of Justice found a long history of racial bias and excessive use of force following McDonald’s death.

The independent monitoring team that oversees the department’s compliance has repeatedly found it lagging behind on deadlines and specific goals and last year called on Snelling as the new superintendent to “address challenges that have disproportionately slowed progress.”

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Associated Press writer Corey Williams contributed to this report from Detroit.