The family of a man who was killed last year in a West Side shootout with Chicago Police officers has reached a tentative $1.25 million settlement agreement with the city.
The settlement proposed by city attorneys for the family of Dexter Reed is still subject to approval by aldermen. A group of pro-police aldermen have, in recent years, scrutinized city attorneys’ efforts to settle lawsuits stemming from alleged police misconduct instead of taking those cases to trial.
Aldermen will also weigh a $27 million deal for the family of a woman who was hit by a car being pursued by officers in alleged violation of CPD’s no-chase policy and later died of her injuries.
Reed, 26, was killed in a hail of gunfire after he shot a CPD officer in the 3800 block of West Ferdinand in March 2024. That wounded officer was part of a team of plainclothes tactical officers assigned to CPD’s Harrison District. CPD officials previously said Reed’s car was pulled over for a seatbelt violation.
All told, the responding five officers fired at least 79 rounds, according to records previously made public by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability. An autopsy performed by the Cook County medical examiner’s office found Reed was shot 13 times.
CPD body-worn camera footage, previously released by COPA, shows the officers exit an unmarked police vehicle, draw their weapons and repeatedly order Reed to roll down his SUV’s tinted windows. Reed initially complied and rolled down his window, but appeared to disregard the officers’ commands to roll down the window on the passenger side.
Moments later, Reed appeared to shoot the officer standing on the SUV’s passenger side. The other four officers then opened fire, shooting dozens of rounds at Reed, who exited the vehicle before falling to the pavement. One officer fired three more shots at Reed as he was lying motionless in the street.
That officer — just 23 years old — fired at least 50 times during the 41 seconds of gunfire. He was one of three officers who reloaded their weapons, according to COPA.
In a letter to CPD Superintendent Larry Snelling written just days after the shooting, COPA Chief Administrator Andrew Kersten disclosed that the agency launched another investigation into the same group of officers less than a month before the Reed shooting. That investigation, Kersten said, involved an allegation of unreasonable search and seizure that “was purportedly also based on a seatbelt violation.”
In recent weeks, the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability has held listening sessions related to CPD officers’ use of traffic stops. Late last year, the monitoring team that assesses compliance with the federal consent decree recommended that traffic stops also be subject to CPD’s reform mandates. The judge overseeing the decree, though, hasn’t yet acted on that recommendation.
In addition to the Reed settlement, city attorneys are also recommending aldermen approve the $27 million deal for the family of Angela Parks.
Parks was struck by a Jeep being pursued by police Officer Ricardo Teneyuque in August 2020, according to her family’s lawsuit against the city. Suspecting the Jeep was stolen, Teneyuque pursued it “well in excess of the speed limit” and without his sirens on, violating the department’s strict rules governing car chases.
The Jeep hit Parks at an Armour Square neighborhood intersection. She broke her neck and severed her spinal cord when she hit the pavement and was rendered quadriplegic before dying from her injuries in February 2022, according to the lawsuit.
As part of the settlement, the city would pay Parks’ family $20 million, while its insurance provider would pay another $7 million.
