By Daniel Trotta
(Reuters) – Four Chicago police officers shot at a suspect nearly 100 times in less than a minute after the man opened fire on them during a traffic stop last month, according to a report from the city’s civilian monitoring office, released on Tuesday.
While the initial Civilian Office of Police Accountability report drew no conclusions about the officers’ conduct, the incident is likely to fuel a long-running national debate about use of force by law enforcement and race relations in the United States.
Tactical officers involved in the March 21 incident were responding during a traffic stop in which African American driver Dexter Reed Jr. was pulled over on suspicion of not wearing a seat belt. The incident remains under investigation.
One officer was shot in the wrist after Reed appeared to initiate an exchange of gunfire, the report said. Reed, 26, was pronounced dead at a hospital, and a gun was recovered from the front passenger seat.
The board, which reviews every police shooting in Chicago, published police body camera video along with its report.
It shows Reed defying commands by the officers to open the door of the car and not to roll up his window. Then a long series of gunshots can be heard.
“Review of video footage and initial reports appears to confirm that Mr. Reed fired first, striking the officer and four officers returned fire. Available preliminary evidence also confirms that officers returned fire approximately 96 times over a period of 41 seconds, including after Mr. Reed exited his vehicle and fell to the ground,” the report said.
At a briefing on Tuesday, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson lamented the loss of another African American man during an encounter with police, but he withheld judgment about the shooting, saying release of the video was an attempt to ensure the investigation remained transparent.
“As mayor and as a father raising a family, including two Black boys on the West Side of Chicago, I’m personally devastated to see yet another young Black man lose his life during an interaction with the police,” Johnson said.
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Stephen Coates)
