No Charges (Finally)

Good news after eighteen months of bullshit:

• Charges won’t be filed against the four officers who shot and killed Dexter Reed after he wounded their partner during a traffic stop last year in Humboldt Park, Cook County’s top prosecutor announced Wednesday.

  Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke’s office found the officers were in reasonable fear for their lives when they pulled Reed over on March 21, 2024.

  Reed fired first, striking one of the five tactical officers in the hand in the 3800 block of West Ferdinand Street. The other officers responded by firing 96 shots at Reed in less than a minute— hitting him 13 times.

  Prosecutors determined the evidence presented to them didn’t warrant criminal charges — a decision upheld by an independent appellate review.

Of course, COPA is still looking to railroad these guys for assorted imagined and procedural offenses, most (if not all) that could be corrected by training and policy amendments.

Were their tactics by the book? They could be improved on.

Was their marksmanship stellar? It never is under pressure.

Was the stop justified? Certainly.

Was the use of Deadly Force authorized, legal and ethical, after ol' Dex started blazing away with his illegally possessed handgun at Officers in an easily recognizable unmarked squad car, with oscillating lights, siren, in car camera, body cameras, vests marked with CPD insignia and duty gear? Abso-f#$%ing-lutely.

But COPA, being a politically motivated group of hacks, will drag this out.