Civil lawsuit hearing held after Chicago police change narrative on Dexter Reed traffic stop

CHICAGO (WLS) -- There was a hearing Wednesday on the civil lawsuit filed in the Chicago police shooting death of Dexter Reed during a traffic stop.

The city originally said officers pulled Reed over because he wasn't wearing a seat belt. Now they said he was pulled over for tinted windows.

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Dexter Reed was pulled over for what police said was a routine traffic stop March 21 on the West Side that escalated quickly.

Police said he fired first at officers, who then returned fire. It resulted in nearly 96 shots from four officers, 13 hitting Reed and killing him. At the time of the shooting, the officers said Reed was pulled over for not wearing a seat belt, but their story has now changed.

"Why are the lawyers now saying, 'Oh, it wasn't for a seatbelt. It was for tinted windows,'" said Shelia Bedi with the Northwestern School of Law and Community Justice Civil Rights Clinic.

Reed's white SUV did have tinted side windows in the front, which is why Andrea Kersten, Chief Administrator for the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, known as COPA, sharply questioned during her initial investigation how officers were able to see a seat belt violation through the tinted windows.

"The fact that these officers are now changing their story and and are now offering a justification for the stop doesn't change anything about the core of this civil rights lawsuit," Bedi said.

READ MORE | Dexter Reed shot 13 times in CPD traffic stop, death ruled a homicide: medical examiner

Reed family attorneys said the narrative change is likely to bolster and keep alive the federal civil case filed by the Reed family against the officers and the City of Chicago since the crux of the legal action is about the 4th Amendment and the reason behind the traffic stop.

"Why did they feel empowered to racially profile to escalate and to use violence before there were any gun shots?" Bedi said. "And that's really what we are fighting right now to have the board here."

City attorneys nor COPA would comment about the latest developments of the civil case.

The Reed family's lawyers said the case is not about money, it's about stopping what they say are racist traffics stops that produce deadly outcomes.