Family and police reform advocates are frustrated after learning that Alexandra Giampapa, one of the team of Chicago police officers who fatally shot Dexter Reed in 2024, quietly resigned in November and is now working as a police officer in Tipp City, Ohio.
Her resignation raises concerns among groups seeking justice for Reed. Organizers and Reed’s family want Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration to maintain their commitment to transparency and police accountability.
They also want the Chicago Police Department (CPD) to get rid of tactical units. In the span of 41 seconds, those officers fired 96 times, hitting Reed multiple times.
“If you’re in the middle of an investigation for potentially having done something wrong on duty, it strikes me as odd and unfortunate that you can then run and go somewhere else to restart and advance your career,” 7th District Police District Councilor Dion McGill said.
McGill added that Giampapa’s departure is an attempt to escape accountability. He doubts that she will receive any punishment if she is found responsible for any wrongdoing in her role in Reed’s shooting.
Unraveled, a Chicago-based independent news publication, first reported on Jan. 29 about Giampapa’s resignation from the Chicago Police Department (CPD). She was no longer a member of CPD as of Nov. 17, 2024.
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 COPA. Giampapa was one of five officers that stopped Reed. She approached Reed’s car during the traffic stop and shouted commands to him, according to video footage.
COPA is the investigating agency, and its investigation into the fatal shooting is still ongoing, a spokesperson confirmed in an email to The TRiiBE on Jan. 30.
Reed’s family and their attorneys filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city of Chicago, Giampapa, and CPD officers Thomas Spanos, Victor Pacheco, Gregory Saint Louis and Aubrey Webb on April 24.
“What started as an unlawful, unconstitutional, pretextual stop on the West Side of Chicago ended with a tragic and preventable death of a 26-year-old Black man, and this officer, who is no longer with the Chicago Police Department, needs to be held accountable,” Andrew M. Stroth, a civil rights attorney said, referring to Giampapa. He’s also the family’s lawyer.
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.
“The Reed family wants these officers held accountable for the tragic and unjustified death of their son and their brother,” Stroth added.
The 11th District, where Reed was killed, has the highest number and percentage of traffic stops — in 2023, nearly 10.5 percent of all traffic stops across the city took place in the district, which is a total of 56,301 stops.
“The family wants to move forward. The family wants to make sure that the death of Dexter results in a fundamental change in how these tactical units are utilized in the city of Chicago,” Stroth said. “The Dexter Reed family wants to make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else. It should have never happened.”
According to WTTW News, Reed’s family and the city reached a potential settlement for an undisclosed amount in December 2024.
Since Reed’s death, his attorneys and a coalition of community-based organizations, such as the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR), have called for disbanding tactical units and ending pretextual traffic stops.
“Our ability to hold officers accountable for killings is not where it should be, and despite that, we’ve still been demanding justice,” said Faayani Aboma Mijani, a leading organizer with the CAARPR.

“At the same time, this officer resigning, in our experience, an admission of guilt to some degree, but the fact that she can go and get a job somewhere else speaks to how broken the system is,” Mijani continued.
Mijani, who uses they/them pronouns, also noted similarities between the Reed case and Sonya Massey, a Black woman shot and killed in her Springfield, Illinois home in July 2024 by former Sangamon County Deputy Sean Grayson.
Grayson worked for six different law department agencies in Illinois in four years despite misconduct and convictions for driving under the influence and more.
“This system is broken, or this system is working how it should, but as far as oppressed people [are concerned], the system is broken,” Mijani said. “That’s why we’re fighting for community power over policing and community control, so that when officers kill people, they face consequences immediately, and they can’t serve on the force again.”
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