Dexter Reed, 26, was stopped at a road check because he was not wearing a seatbelt. The episode occurred on March 21 in Chicago, but the images taken by an officer's bodycam have only now been released.
According to the official version, the policemen opened fire after Reed refused to get out of the vehicle and shot first, wounding one of them. The footage has sparked anger from Dexter's family, who are now calling for criminal charges against the officers and for the Chicago Police Department to disband tactical units like the one involved in the shooting. But it also sparked the wrath of the city's African-American community, who tried to attack the police station. The Reed family's legal team says the footage "leaves many questions open." “This all seems disproportionate, it seems like a pretext,” commented civil rights lawyer Steven Hart. The boy's relatives describe him as a young man who loved playing basketball, cooking for them and aspired to become a sportscaster.