Dexter Reed police shooting $1.25 million settlement held from committee vote

A controversial settlement is now in City Council limbo after the deal to award $1.25 million to the family of a man shot and killed by Chicago police after he fired at officers was not brought up for a planned vote Monday.

Aldermen had appeared poised for a tense debate over the settlement recommended by city attorneys for the family of Dexter Reed as a way to avoid a potentially more costly payout in court. But Ald. Pat Dowell, chair of the City Council’s Finance Committee, withheld the settlement instead of letting committee members decide whether to send it on to the full council.

Asked whether she held it because she was afraid it wouldn’t pass, Dowell said only that aldermen need more time to discuss the deal. Aldermen often delay planned votes when they do not have the support to pass an item. It’s not clear when the Reed settlement might now come up for consideration in the Finance Committee.

Some aldermen believe the city should not settle Reed’s family’s lawsuit because Reed fired first in the March 2024 incident, striking an officer before police opened fire. Southwest Side Ald. Matt O’Shea, one of the aldermen opposed to the deal, said he believed it did not have the votes to pass the committee Monday.

“To say we’re rewarding someone, the family left behind from someone who put themselves in harm’s way, that’s absurd,” said O’Shea, 19th.

Ald. Andre Vasquez, 40th, said he was unsure how he would have voted on the “incredibly challenging” settlement. He understands the “visceral response” to the proposed deal, but said he worries issues with the case — including the possibility a jury would determine officers illegally pulled Reed over — could force the city to pay as much as $5 million in court.

“And then you’re opening up the door for any other similar case to also sue along certain grounds, depending on the precedent that might set,” Vasquez said. “At root, if this is a case that we could lose in court, it could open us up to losing a lot more money down the line.”

Reed was shot and killed by plainclothes police in a Humboldt Park traffic stop. Police body cam video shows Reed firing first at one of the officers who pulled him over for a seatbelt violation, a sequence of events further confirmed by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability.

Five officers fired at least 79 rounds at Reed, striking him 13 times, after Reed initially complied with orders to roll down his window but then appeared to disregard a command to roll down a window on his car’s passenger side, according to COPA and an autopsy report.

Reed exited his car during the shootout that ensued before falling to the pavement. One officer fired three more shots at Reed as he was lying motionless on the street. That 23-year-old officer fired at least 50 rounds during the 41 seconds of gunfire, according to COPA.

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The lawsuit from Reed’s family alleged officers escalated the traffic stop by pointing guns at Reed and “demonstrated a gross disregard for the sanctity of human life” by shooting his motionless body. It also called the traffic stop “unlawful” and “pretextual.”

In July 2023, Reed, a former Westinghouse College Prep basketball player, was arrested near the United Center and charged with illegally possessing a gun inside the Windy City Smokeout music and food festival. That case was pending at the time of his death.

The committee on Monday did give initial approval to a $27 million deal for the family of Angela Parks, a woman paralyzed by a driver evading police in an August 2020 chase that violated CPD’s strict car pursuit policies. The woman, who died of her injuries 18 months later, was hit by a Jeep speeding away from police as she walked into an Armour Square intersection.

Officer Ricardo Teneyuque drove into oncoming traffic, failed to alert supervisors and did not turn on his sirens during the chase, city attorney Margaret Mendenhall Casey told aldermen. Teneyuque followed about 15 feet behind the car he believed was stolen for a quarter mile, driving at one point at 48 mph, Mendenhall Casey said.

Teneyuque received a two-day suspension for violating chase policies. Parks is survived by five children who were between ages eight and 19 at the time of the crash, Mendenhall Casey said. If the full City Council approves the deal, the city will pay Parks’ estate $20 million, and its insurer will pay another $7 million.

Aldermen advanced three additional settlements for a total of $4,440,000. The full City Council is set to consider those next week.