City Council finance committee rejects $1.25 million settlement for the family of Dexter Reed

On Friday, the Chicago City Council finance committee voted 12-15 to block a $1.25 million settlement for the family of Dexter Reed, a 26-year-old Black man fatally shot by Chicago police officers during a traffic stop on the West Side in 2024. 

“The family is disappointed, but the family is going to continue their quest for justice,” said civil rights attorney Andrew M. Stroth, who represents the Reed family. “You have a city under a federal consent decree, a team of officers with a history and pattern and practice of unconstitutional policing with these types of stops. The family is going to continue to move forward.”

The finance committee rejected the settlement, but the family’s case remains pending in court. Stroth estimated that the city’s law department could spend between $3 million and $5 million to defend the case if the case goes to trial. 

The committee voted by voice; some didn’t use microphones, making it hard to catch each person’s vote. You can watch the committee meeting here. The TRiiBE will be following up to get the votes by name.

“It seems like a recommendation from a federal court judge and parties coming together to come to a resolution makes the most sense when you think about the tragic impact this has had on the Reed family and the multi-million dollar potential cost to taxpayers,” he said. 

On March 21, 2024, Reed, 26, was riding in his car in the 3800 block of West Ferdinand in Humboldt Park when tactical officers wearing plainclothes were riding in an unmarked CPD SUV side-swiped his car. 

According to the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA), Reed wasn’t wearing a seatbelt and officers pulled him over during a traffic stop. One of the officers was shot in the wrist and transported to the hospital. Police say that Reed shot at them. A gun was recovered at the scene, according to the COPA.  

In the span of 41 seconds, police officers fired 96 times, hitting Reed multiple times. 

Reed’s family later filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city of Chicago, Alexandra Giampapa, and CPD officers Thomas Spanos, Victor Pacheco, Gregory Saint Louis and Aubrey Webb in 2024. 

The lawsuit filed multiple counts against the officers and the city, including excessive force, wrongful death, battery, failure to intervene, denial of medical care, unconstitutional traffic stop, and failure to train and discipline officers adequately.

“What happened to Dexter was a lynching,” Faayani Aboma, an organizer in the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR), said. 

Since Reed’s death, his attorneys and a coalition of community-based organizations, including police district councilors, the CAARPR and the Free2Move Coalition, have called for disbanding tactical units and ending pretextual traffic stops.

“A Black man getting pulled over by a death squad, without pretext, and was shot at 96 times. A number of those officers reloaded their clip,” Aboma said. “At least one reloaded twice. It’s disgusting that these alders voted against the settlement. They don’t bat an eye when it comes to the other over $100 million dollars a year that we spend on police misconduct settlements.”

More than a year after Reed’s death, a new joint report from Impact to Equity and the Free2Move Coalition found that CPD continues to disproportionately stop Black and Latino drivers for minor traffic violations.

While traffic stops dropped 45% citywide in 2024, CPD still conducted about 800 stops per day—more than in any year before 2017. The new report also found a data discrepancy: the Office of Emergency Management and Communications (OEMC) recorded 504,665 stops in 2024, which is 211,000 more than CPD’s own reported figures. Most stops were for minor violations, such as expired registration or broken lights.

“The Reed family lost their son, their brother, their family member, and they’re disappointed with the city’s decision today,” Stroth said. “They have vowed to continue to pursue justice on behalf of Dexter. I also hope that the city leadership would follow the mandate as outlined in the federal consent decree and stop the practice of unconstitutional policing on the West and South sides of Chicago.”