CHICAGO (AP) — Plainclothes Chicago police officers fired nearly 100 shots in 41 seconds during a traffic stop, killing one man and injuring another officer, police watchdogs said in graphic footage released Tuesday. According to new video footage.
Five officers from a tactical unit in an unmarked police vehicle surrounded the SUV. last month Dexter Reed was driving and is suspected of not wearing a seatbelt. The video shows the 26-year-old black man briefly lowering his window, then raising it and refusing to exit the vehicle as more officers arrive, shouting commands and raising their weapons. .
The Office of Civilian Police Accountability said there was preliminary evidence that Reed fired first, wounding an officer in the Humboldt Park neighborhood on the city's West Side. Four police officers then returned fire, firing 96 shots.
COPA released body-worn camera footage, 911 calls and police reports, saying the gunshots continued even after “Reed exited the vehicle and fell to the ground.”
The video released provides a more complete view than what police initially provided last month.
Superintendent Larry Snelling previously said the March 21 shooting began with a traffic stop and was a “gunfight.”
Family members are questioning authorities' explanation for the shooting and want answers as to why Reed was pulled over. Family attorney Andrew M. Stross said Reed's mother, sister, uncle and father watched the video Tuesday and were emotionally distraught. He said the young man was remembered as a talented high school basketball player who had ambitions of becoming a sportscaster.
“I can't really explain the pain that I and my family are going through, but there are people out there who understand that he was a son, a brother, an uncle, and that he had loved ones. I just hope he's there,” Reed's sister, Porsha Banks, told reporters. “He was a very important person.”
Banks and other family members took part in a demonstration Tuesday night outside the 11th Precinct Police Station, where demonstrators demanded the officer who shot and killed Reed be fired. Some demonstrators clashed with hecklers, and one person was hospitalized. Chicago Sun-Times report.
Stross argued that police enforcement by plainclothes officers who did not identify themselves as police was unconstitutional. He said the family hopes for a speedy investigation and for the department to comply with the law. A reform plan supervised by the court.
“While nothing can bring Dexter back, efforts should certainly be taken to prevent the same thing from happening to other families,” he said.
On Tuesday, police spokesman Thomas Ahern said police were cooperating with the investigation.
“We cannot make any judgments about this shooting until all the facts are known and the investigation is complete,” he said.
The video shows multiple points of view, including that of the officer who was shot. However, no clear footage of Reed's shooting exists. A gun was later recovered from the vehicle.
As tactical units drove to the scene, multiple officers yelled profane commands at Reed to first roll down the windows and then open the doors.
At that moment, a gunshot rang out. A man who called 911 to report the shooting described it as “shooting like we were in the Vietnam War.”
Reed got out of the car and fell to the ground, eventually lying on his stomach with his head near the rear wheel and only one shoe on. A trail of blood flows into a nearby gutter. Footage from the car shows dozens of bullet holes. The other shoe is just outside the driver's door.
“Don't move! Don't move!” the officers shouted at Reed, who held up his bloody, fallen hand and looked for his gun, but couldn't find it. They handcuff him as he remains face down and does not move.
A police officer said, “We don't know where the gun is.'' He then used a flashlight to search the vehicle and located the murder weapon in the passenger seat.
“He started shooting at us,” said another police officer.
More police officers and an ambulance then arrived at the scene.
“We were all firing,” one officer repeats.
Mayor Brandon Johnson said Tuesday's release was part of an effort to increase transparency and vowed a thorough investigation.
“Any attempt to withhold or delay information is a historical mistake,” he said at a press conference with COPA and the Cook County State's Attorney's Office. “As a mayor and a father raising a family that included two black boys on Chicago's West Side, I was personally shocked to see a young black man lose his life in an interaction with police. I am.”
He said the city does not condone shootings against police officers, noting that the officer, who is also black, suffered a wrist injury, but the situation could have been much worse. If the bullet had gone a few inches in a different direction, Johnson said, “we would be here talking about the death of another black man.”
The officers were placed on administrative leave for 30 days while COPA and the Cook County State's Attorney's Office investigate.
State Attorney Kim Foxx said her office will determine whether the officers' use of force was justified and whether criminal charges are necessary.
“Let me assure you that our pursuit of justice will be relentless, fact-based, based on the evidence and the law,” she said.
The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office classified Reed's death as a homicide and reported that he died of “multiple” gunshot wounds.
COPA is Created in 2016 After the city was forced to release dashcam footage of then-officer Jason Van Dyke fatally shooting the 17-year-old. Laquan McDonald, contradicting the officer's account that the boy had charged at police with a knife. Those responsibilities include investigating police shootings.
Law enforcement officials have been relying on a consent order since 2019 that followed McDonald's death after the U.S. Department of Justice found a long history of racial bias and excessive use of force.
The independent oversight team that oversees the department's compliance has repeatedly found the department is behind deadlines and specific targets, and last year, as the next superintendent, Snelling was asked to “address challenges that are unduly slowing progress.” “I will.”
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Associated Press writer Corey Williams contributed to this report from Detroit.