Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke announced Wednesday that the Chicago police officers who killed Dexter Reed last year during shootout in Humboldt Park will not face any criminal charges.

"To the question of whether the officers committed a crime under the Illinois Criminal Code, the answer is straightforward. They did not," O'Neill Burke said.

Prosecutors' review of the case determined Reed fired at officers first, and there wasn't enough evidence to justify criminal charges against the four officers who shot and killed him.

"What happened that evening was a tragedy. A young life ended, a police officer was shot with a potentially career-ending injury, and many other lives were upended. An entire neighborhood was traumatized," Burke said. "In this case, the evidence is clear and overwhelming that we would not be able to meet our burden and secure convictions. Therefore we will not be any of the police officers who were involved in this incident."

Video released by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability – which investigates all police shootings – shows Reed, 26, shot an officer after failing to comply with orders to roll down his window after he was pulled over on March 21, 2024 in the 3800 block of West Ferdinand Street. 

Police returned fire as Reed got out of the car and continued to shoot. Four officers fired a total of 96 shots at Reed in 41 seconds, hitting him 13 times, killing him. Reed fired a total of 11 times during the shootout.

Warning: The video below contains graphic content

O'Neill Burke said, based on her office's review of the case, the officers didn't know if Reed was still armed when he got out of the car, and viewed him as an active threat.

"It was unmistakable that Mr. Reed fired first," O'Neill Burke said.

Reed's gun was recovered from the passenger seat of his SUV after the shooting. Investigators determined it had been stolen from Gary, Indiana, and used in a separate shooting in 2023 involving an off-duty CPD officer.

The shooting sparked community outrage, as body camera video footage showed officers continuing to fire at Reed after he'd fallen to the ground.

"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," O'Neill Burke said. "However, I will never make decisions in this office based on who is screaming the loudest, or what political winds are blowing. 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."

Reed family attorney Andrew M. Stroth said they are disappointed but not surprised that the officers won't be charged with a crime.

"While the family is disappointed, this was the decision we expected. As you all know, the threshold to charge criminally is beyond a reasonable doubt. It is such a high threshold and standard that typically officers do not get charged," Stroth said.

Both Reed's family and COPA have raised questions about why a team of five plain-clothed tactical officers pulled over Reed to begin with.

In a federal lawsuit against the city and the officers, Reed's mother has claimed the traffic stop targeting her son was "unlawful and pretextual," and was the result of traffic stop quotas CPD imposes on officers.  

"Officers had no reasonable suspicion that Dexter violated any law, and they falsely stated otherwise in official CPD reports," the lawsuit claims.

Former COPA Chief Administrator Andrea Kersten, who stepped down in February, has said the officers involved claimed they noticed Reed wasn't wearing a seat belt, but she has questioned how they could have seen that through his vehicle's tinted windows.

Stroth said there's no way the officers involved in the shooting could have seen whether or not Reed was wearing a seat belt.

"This case is about the unconstitutional, the pretextual and racist stop by officers working in the tactical unit in the 11th District," he said.

But O'Neill Burke said the issue of the traffic stop is outside the scope of her office.

"It is not this office's role to examine or cast judgment on police tactics," she said.

In April, the City Council Finance Committee rejected a recommendation from the city's attorneys to settle the Reed family's lawsuit for $1.25 million, meaning the lawsuit will now go to trial.

COPA's investigation into the officers' actions remains open. While they won't face criminal charges, the officers could still face disciplinary action if COPA determines they violated any CPD policies.