Plainclothes Chicago police officers fired nearly 100 gunshots over 41 seconds during a traffic stop that left one man dead and one officer injured, according to graphic video footage a police oversight agency released Tuesday.
Five officers from a tactical unit who were in an unmarked police vehicle surrounded an SUV last month driven by Dexter Reed, allegedly for failing to wear a seatbelt. Video shows the 26-year-old Black man briefly lowering a window and then raising it and refusing to exit the vehicle as more officers arrived, yelled commands and drew weapons.
If I had to guess, they pulled Reed over because thought he had something illegal in the car. The just used the seat belt as an excuse to pull him over and attempt to establish probable cause for a search of the car.
That is probably supported by this:
As well as the fact that, even after a cop had emptied his magazine, Reed still managed to start driving away.
I’m normally an ACAB guy, but the video makes it look like they were justified in continuing to fire, especially if it’s true that Reed fired first.
In that video they already had guns out and pointed at him. A group of unmarked “cops” shouldn’t be allowed to draw weapons and surround your car on a seatbelt violation. The second they all showed up with weapons drawn I would consider his shot self defense.
They shouldn’t even be approaching the car until a uniformed officer is on scene to vouch that these aren’t just some Proud Boys (or any similar group of wanna be paramilitary out LARPing) playing cops.
Cash money says they were some Proud Boys being cops.
The police always claim they were shot at first. The number of times I’ve heard that and it turns out the police shot themselves and then murdered someone makes me very hesitant to believe that without clear video of it.
there is literal video in the linked article of him shooting first.
There’s police off camera. You want people to believe the police? Release all the footage. This wouldn’t be the first time they released only the footage that shows them in the best light.
Another angle isn’t going to show anyone else shooting first. This isn’t the George Lucas cut.
this video has more angles: https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/traffic-stop-shootout-chicago-police-dexter-reed-escalate/ of course you could have been there and he could have looked at you and said ‘I’m going to shoot the police first’ and you would have witnessed him doing it and you’d still be saying the exact same things right now.
You’re right this isn’t Hollywood. So why would you try to sell me that highly edited cut as evidence? That’s not a video it’s a slideshow with people talking over it.
Edit to add - this is what we need to see.
He was surrounded by unmarked people with guns drawn and pointed at him as soon as he rolled down his window. Plain clothes officers should not be surrounding people with guns drawn for a “seatbelt” violation. I would say he felt like his life was at risk, and use of force was completely justified here.
These cops murdered him, and should be charged as such.