Chicago City Wire

A former Chicago police union official cautioned against spinning the story of 26-year-old Dexter Reed, who was shot and killed by police during a March 21 traffic stop, into yet another anti-policy frenzy in the press and among city leaders.

“In Chicago’s current state of demise, any time Chicago police are wounded or killed during the course of their jobs, opportunity knocks for Chicago’s ruling party,” according to Martin Preib's Crooked City blog on Substack. “A well-honed legal and media machine takes shape, instantly turning the police into criminals and the offenders into folk heroes.”

On Tuesday, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) released police body cam videos of the shooting, which occurred in the Humboldt Park neighborhood of the city.

The video shows Reed firing first from inside his parked car— pulled over, the police said, for a seat belt violation. One shot shattered an officer’s wrist. Four police officers then fired multiple rounds into the car until Reed stumbled out and collapsed into the street behind the car. The officers, not knowing if Reed was still armed, continued firing until he stopped moving.

News reports after the shooting cited Reed’s high school basketball career and included glowing reports of his character. Most failed to mention that Reed was on a pre-trial release for a felony gun case at the time of the shooting.

At a Tuesday news conference, Andrew M. Stroth, an attorney representing Reed’s family, called the final shots by police a “military-style execution.”

“How many more Black and Brown young men have to die before this city will change?” he said.

Preib, FOP Lodge 7 spokesman from 2017- 2021, recounted that FOP attorneys in 2018 threatened Stroth with a defamation suit for inflammatory remarks surrounding the suicide of a 15-year-old boy on the West Side.

In the incident, police reported that 15-year-old Steven Rosenthal killed himself on the stairwell of a building where he lived in the city’s Lawndale neighborhood. The police attempted to stop the boy from using the gun, but he fled and turned the gun on himself. An autopsy confirmed that Rosenthal committed suicide.

However, Stroth and family members of the deceased alleged that the police had shot Rosenthal.

Preib wrote: “Following Rosenthal’s death, Stroth held a news conference where he stated ‘within moments, these officers, without cause or provocation, shot and killed 15-year-old Steven. ...Based on several eyewitness accounts, these officers ended the hopes and the dreams of a talented young man with a bright future.’”

Stroth dropped his claims when threatened with the lawsuit.

And in 2021, the Illinois Supreme Court suspended Stroth’s license for 30 days for, among other things, falsely telling “his client that he had communicated with an insurance claims adjuster, and he made false statements to the ARDC [Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission] in the course of the disciplinary proceeding.”

“The offenses cited by the ARDC, particularly that he knowingly made false statements of material fact in connection with a disciplinary matter and engaged in dishonest conduct would generally merit far more discipline for a Chicago police officer than the 30-day suspension Stroth received,” Preib wrote.