Chicago police officers involved in Dexter Reed's shooting death won't face criminal charges

CHICAGO (CN) — The group of Chicago police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Dexter Reed during a March 2024 traffic stop will not face criminal charges, Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke announced during a Wednesday news briefing.

Four Chicago police officers shot and killed Dexter Reed, a 26-year-old Black man, after he allegedly shot and wounded a fifth officer during a traffic stop on March 21, 2024. Police fired 96 rounds in 41 seconds, hitting Reed multiple times.

At a Wednesday news conference, Burke stated that her office would not pursue charges against the four officers, citing evidence that showed they would be unable to meet the burden of proof and secure convictions.

“This is not the appropriate venue to judge whether the officers involved deviated from their training, or whether the policies and procedures they trained on are appropriate. There are other avenues for those questions and issues to be addressed,” Burke said. “But to the question of whether the officers committed a crime under the Illinois Criminal Code, the answer is straightforward: they did not.”

Assistant State’s attorney Lynn McCarthy, who supervises the law enforcement unit of the state’s attorney’s office, walked through the evidence from the shooting that the state’s attorney’s office used to reach its decision in a brief presentation Wednesday afternoon.

During this presentation, McCarthy explained the investigative process of an officer involved shooting and played the body camera footage from the five officers on the scene of the shooting, including the officer who suffered a gunshot wound to his forearm.

McCarthy said the footage made it clear that all of the officers engaged in protective conduct during the shooting.

“Their words and actions indicate that they were still fearful of the threat that Reed posed, and they were still under stress, as you could hear and see from their breathing and their actions,” she said.

She also explained the legal precedent where police might use deadly force, which is in instances where it is necessary to protect themselves from death or great bodily harm, based on a totality of the circumstances.

McCarthy said Reed was non-compliant, fired first and committed multiple forcible felonies, including attempted murder and aggravated battery with a firearm.

Police said they stopped Reed for not wearing a seatbelt. His family disputed the stop’s legality, calling it pretextual and unlawful in a federal civil rights suit filed against the police officers and the city of Chicago in April 2024.

In April 2025, the Chicago City Council rejected a $1.25 million settlement recommended by city attorneys and accepted by Reed’s family. The civil case will now go to trial.

“It is a tragedy. Dexter Reed was the age of several of my children. That is uncontroverted. This is a terrible thing when a young person is killed. However, I will never make decisions in this office based on who is screaming the loudest or what political winds are blowing,” Burke said. “The only thing that will dictate the decisions that are made by this office are the law and the facts, and the law and the facts in this case indicate that there is no basis to charge the officers.”

The Civilian Office of Police Accountability, which is the agency that handles police oversight and accountability in Chicago, has not finished its probe in connection with the shooting.

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