“Y’all jump out on us every day”—Tactical team that killed Dexter Reed was involved in a shooting 24 hours earlier

CONTENT WARNING: Police violence and animal death.

Videos released by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) this week show the Chicago Police officers who shot and killed Dexter Reed were involved in another shooting just one day prior.

As reported previously by People’s Fabric, COPA is currently investigating a pattern of at least 28 potentially unlawful stops and searches conducted by the same tactical team. 

The new videos from March 20 show the squad who killed Reed rolling through the same West Side neighborhood with another unmarked police SUV. Nine plainclothes tactical officers stop and hop out of their vehicle to search a man sitting in a chair on the sidewalk, citing a “large bulge” in his waistband on their investigatory stop report. Cops ultimately found nothing.

Within seconds, however, the encounter turned fatal—not for a human, but somebody’s pet. Body-worn camera videos activated after the fact capture, without audio, officer Michael Ambrose pumping multiple rounds into a gray pit bull who approached him excitedly.

The group of men at the scene, clearly distraught, are captured telling police they were trying to put the dog away in the yard to secure it, but simply weren’t given enough time to do so.

The next day, about a mile away, five of those same officers would perform another “jump-out” maneuver at Ferdinand and Avers, surrounding Dexter Reed’s vehicle. Reed appeared to fire one shot at police after they drew their weapons on him. Police unleashed nearly 100 rounds in return, continuing their barrage after he scrambled out of his vehicle unarmed and fell to the ground. 

A majority of those rounds were discharged by fresh-faced rookie Thomas Spanos. 23-year-old Spanos’ assignment to the team in January aligns with the general trend of CPD sending its most inexperienced cops to work in the 11th District.  

By design, the body-worn cameras donned by CPD include two minutes of soundless video prior to officers’ manual activation. 

This means police failed to activate their cameras as required by policy when frisking the young man, but turned them on only after Ambrose opened fire. 

What the footage does capture is two officers, Aubrey Webb and Gregory Saint Louis, exiting their car and approaching the man on the 4000 west block of Wilcox Street. He appears to be socializing with others standing nearby.

Saint Louis holds the man as Webb searches his pants, poking at his fly and pulling his waistband out to peer down the front of his pants. Simultaneously, officers Michael Ambrose and Pablo Cartagena draw their weapons on a dog running in their direction. Ambrose fires multiple times, killing the dog immediately.

Ambrose claims that he had previously been bitten by a dog on the same block in December 2023. Records indicate Ambrose did not take any medical leave after the alleged incident. A Freedom of Information Act request has been filed to gather more information.

Once the audio recording kicks in, bystanders can be heard shouting at officers, and explaining they weren’t given adequate time to put the dog away before police jumped out at them.

“I told y’all I was gonna put the fuckin’ dog in the yard. What the fuck?” yells one man. “Y’all jump out on us every day. I was gonna put the dog in the yard. Nobody’s running or nothing.”

Officer Alexandra Giampapa responds, “The dog’s not supposed to be out at all, so you can’t blame us.”

“I just said, don’t jump out. I’m not going nowhere, I’m puttin’ the dog away.”

Giampapa shrugs, “The dog shouldn’t have been out to begin with.”

Another man interjects: “It only takes one shot, though.”

The group appears to be very familiar with CPD’s search tactics in the neighborhood, mentioning previous encounters with police.

“Every day we just stand there. We get stopped and frisked and everything,” one man shouts.

“We don’t got no guns or nothin’. I just said, I’m puttin’ the dog in the yard.”

Officers Victor Pacheco and Thomas Spanos were also on the scene. After shots were fired, Spanos, who is visibly shaken, can be heard asking,  “What do we say?” before telling dispatch that a dog had been shot. 

Giampapa immediately warns the team, “don’t say anything.” 

The next day, she would issue the same warning after Dexter Reed was killed: “Don’t say anything. Do you hear me? Be quiet.”

Department policy requires a minimum 30-day period of administrative duties after an officer discharges their firearm, but the policy exempts shootings “solely for the destruction/deterrence of an animal.” Also, no policy mandates officers take time away from their interactions with the public if they are merely present when another officer discharges their firearm.

The next day, Giampapa, Spanos, Pacheco, Webb, and Saint Louis returned to work as usual. The evening sun can be seen low on the horizon in videos of their killing of Dexter Reed—it is almost precisely the same time of day. 

Police attendance records indicate Ambrose did not work his beat for nine days after killing the dog, and a COPA investigation determined the shooting was “within policy.”