Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke maintains that Dexter Reed shot first, leading to the barrage of gunfire that killed the 26-year-old West Side native during a Chicago police traffic stop in March 2024.
Reed’s family, however, argues that it’s still unclear who shot first because they haven’t seen the ballistics report from the Illinois State Police.
On Wednesday, O’Neill Burke announced that her office wouldn’t be pursuing criminal charges against the four Chicago cops who shot Reed 13 times. According to Assistant State’s Attorney Lynn McCarthy, there were 11 fired cartridge cases found at the scene that were sent to the Illinois State Police Crime Lab for ballistics examination.
“They all matched Reed’s firearm,” McCarthy told reporters at Wednesday’s press conference. “Additional ballistics testing was done by the Illinois State Police on fired cartridge cases as well as additional bullets and bullet fragments were also examined. DNA testing was performed, and Dexter Reed’s DNA profile was recovered on that weapon that was found in his vehicle, his hands also tested positive for gunshot residue.”
Andrew M. Stroth, the family’s attorney, said they still have not seen the ballistic evidence that the State’s Attorney’s Office (SAO) referred to during the press conference. Reed’s family wants to find out as much objective information as possible to understand what happened between him and the Chicago police officers that day.
“We haven’t seen the ballistics evidence, even though it’s been requested. It’s not been provided to the family’s attorneys,” Stroth said.
Reed’s family expressed their disappointment in O’Neill Burke’s decision. Stroth said the focus of the case should be that Chicago police officers conducted an ”unconstitutional traffic stop.” The police officers who were involved stopped Reed because he was driving while Black, he added.
“The State’s Attorney spent a lot of time on issues that aren’t relevant to the point, which was an unlawful traffic stop that initiated this whole series of events,” Stroth said. “So she can say things to malign Dexter Reed’s character and provide her narrative regarding who fired shots, but the reality is, this case is about one thing, and that’s an unlawful traffic stop that resulted in 96 shots and took the life of a 26-year-old young Black man.”
Stroth told The TRiiBE they’re working on an amended complaint to the initial 2024 federal civil rights lawsuit against the city of Chicago and the five Chicago police officers, namely Alexandra Giampapa, Thomas Spanos, Victor Pacheco, Gregory Saint Louis and Aubrey Webb. Giampapa quietly resigned from the Chicago Police Department (CPD) in November 2024 and is now working as a police officer in Tipp City, Ohio.
“The family is going to advance the civil case so that this type of discriminatory stop doesn’t happen to others,” Stroth said on Wednesday. “This case will cost the city millions of dollars to defend because it’s based on a pattern and practice of unconstitutional policing by the Chicago Police Department, as documented by the United States Department of Justice.”
At Wednesday’s press conference, McCarthy said Reed was driving his SUV in the 3800 block of West Ferdinand in Humboldt Park on March 21, 2024. Reed was pulled over because he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, according to a Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) report from April 9, 2024; the report was made available after the public release of police video footage from the shooting.
The family’s civil rights suit alleges that CPD tactical officers in plainclothes side-swiped Reed’s car with their unmarked CPD-issued SUV.
Former COPA Chief Andrea Kersten wrote a letter to CPD Supt. Larry Snelling, calling the validity of the traffic stop into question. Kersten cast doubt on whether officers could see that Reed wasn’t wearing a seat belt because of the dark tint on his car. Kersten later resigned from her role on Feb. 13, nearly 10 months after the letter was released.
After the stop, Saint Louis approached the passenger side of the vehicle, and Giampapa was on the driver’s side. They gave Reed verbal commands, but Reed didn’t comply with any of their verbal directions. McCarthy said he had tints on his windows; officers asked him to raise his windows but he lowered them down, raised them up and lowered them down again. She also said he did not comply with unlocking his car doors and showing his hands.
Within 30 seconds of police officers approaching the vehicle, McCarthy said Reed fired a gun from the passenger side, striking Saint Louis in his left wrist. Officers returned fire.
“During a second volley of shots,” McCarthy said, Reed not only fired out of the passenger side of his SUV, but also out of the driver’s side. Officers fired more shots.
Reed then moved the car forward and crashed into a parked car. He got out of his SUV while crouching down, and officers fired additional shots. Reed fell behind his SUV, and police officers fired the final shots.
Although McCarthy said Reed was unarmed when he exited his SUV, she said police were fearful based on their words and actions, which can be seen and heard in the police footage. She shared body-worn camera footage from each of the five officers who were at the scene, along with home surveillance video.
In addition, she explained the rationale behind the CCSAO’s decision not to file charges. The CCSAO said it will publicly release the video footage that was given to reporters.
“We all now know that he was unarmed when he exited the vehicle,” McCarthy said. “We would have to prove that the officers also knew that. You can hear the statements they’re making. Their action to demonstrate that they were not aware that he was unarmed, which is why they’re asking for cover, which is why they’re trying to secure the weapon.”
McCarthy said the shooting lasted a total of 41 seconds from the time Reed fired the first shot until officers fired the final shots.
In total, she said Reed fired 11 shots. There was a gun found on the passenger seat of his SUV. The four officers fired 96 shots, and he was shot 13 times. The whole encounter lasted 71 seconds, according to McCarthy.
The CCSAO reviewed charges, including first-degree murder, second-degree murder, and aggravated battery with a firearm, but determined that the burden of proof couldn’t be met.
“My office has a statutory mandate to review the investigation and all available evidence and bring criminal charges if they are warranted. In this case, the evidence is clear and overwhelming that we would not be able to meet our burden and secure convictions,” O’Neill Burke said. “Therefore, we will not be charging any of the police officers who are involved in this.”
Under state law, each of these charges requires proving that the officers acted without lawful justification, according to McCarthy. The prosecutor’s office also considered official misconduct.
The city’s Law Department recommended a $1.25 million settlement for Reed’s family, who is suing the city and officers for the unlawful traffic stop that led to his death, but the Chicago City Council’s finance committee rejected the offer in April. In his midterm interview, Mayor Brandon Johnson told TRiiBE columnist Bella BAHHS that the council members who voted against it were reacting to the shooting that took place after the traffic stop.
“The unfortunate aspect of this particular settlement is that the settlement was centered around the pretextual pullovers that those officers were engaged in, and that is what the judge was reacting to. City Council members were reacting to something different — to what happened afterward,” Johnson explained.
O’Neill Burke called the incident tragic, but reiterated that Reed shot at officers first. The Illinois State’s Attorney Appellate Prosecutor also sided with the CCSAO’s decision not to charge the officers. The agency acts as a special prosecutor and provided an additional independent review of the case.
“This decision is not reached lightly, nor does it diminish the tragedy that has occurred, but it is unmistakable that Mr. Reed was the first to fire his weapon, a gun he did not legally possess,” O’Neill Burke told reporters. “This action seriously wounded a police officer and set off the initial exchange of gunfire.”
COPA is still reviewing the case and is looking to close it in a timely manner, a spokesperson confirmed in an email to The TRiiBE on Aug. 13.
Since Reed’s death, his attorneys and a coalition of community-based organizations have called for disbanding tactical units and ending pretextual traffic stops. Aislinn Pulley, the Chicago Torture Justice Center executive director, is part of the coalition that’s been advocating for Reed and other victims of police brutality.
Pulley said she isn’t surprised by O’Neill Burke’s no-charge decision and said it reflects a shift to the right for the State’s Attorney Office, following the departure of progressive State’s Attorney Kim Foxx.
“[O’Neill] Burke is taking the State’s Attorney’s Office and moving it back to the State’s Attorney’s Office being a place that enforces impunity for police officers and reinforces the ‘good ol’ boys club’ that dominated CPD culture for decades,” Pulley said. “It’s also consistent with the rightward shift that is happening in the nation led by [President Donald] Trump, and is a direct backlash to the movement to hold police accountable.”
Pulley pointed to the increase in population at Cook County Jail as evidence of the CCSAO shifting to the right. The total jail population as of today is about 5,900. On August 14, 2024, the jail population was a little over 4,900, according to data from the Cook County Sheriff’s Office.
In response to a reporter’s question about the anger and sadness expressed by community members over the police killing of Reed, O’Neill Burke said the CCSAO bases its decisions on facts.
“Dexter Reed was the age of several of my children. That is uncontroverted. This is a terrible thing when a young person is killed,” O’Neill Burke said. “However, I will never make decisions in this office based on who is screaming the loudest or what political winds are blowing. The only thing that will dictate the decisions that are made by this office are the law and the facts, and the law and the facts in this case indicate that there is no basis to charge the officers.”
