Family speaks out after IMPD officer shoots, kills Sean Reed
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Dreasjon “Sean” Reed could never sit still, his family said.
The 21-year-old spent the last moments of his life running from police after a high-speed car chase involving two of the city’s top cops.
Reed was shot and killed while trading gunfire with an officer, who was not injured, authorities said.
The killing was not recorded by any dash or body cameras, according to police.
The events preceding the fatal shooting Wednesday night were partially recorded on Reed’s phone and streamed on Facebook Live.
The live stream continued after the phone appeared to fall on the ground, capturing audio of more than a dozen gunshots and comments made by officers who responded to the scene.
Thousands of people were tuned in when a man’s voice was heard saying, “I think it’s going to be a closed casket, homie.”
Randal Taylor, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD) chief, said the “unacceptable and unbecoming” comment was made by an unidentified IMPD officer who was not involved in the shooting.
He will face immediate disciplinary action, Taylor said Thursday afternoon during a virtual news conference.
Jamie Reed, Sean’s father, said he couldn’t bear to watch replays of the 70-minute live video.
“It’s too hurtful,” he told News 8. “I can’t watch my son get gunned down. It’s just hurtful. Just seeing that took me somewhere else.”
He and his daughter, Jazmine Reed, attended a rally Thursday afternoon in downtown Indianapolis to protest the police department’s handling of the incident.
“My little brother became a statistic. He wasn’t trying to be that,” Jazmine Reed said.
Relatives questioned why the officer tased the suspect and then opened fire when they assumed he was already on the ground.
Authorities claimed a gun found near Reed had been fired twice but were unable to confirm “which shots were fired when.”
“He didn’t deserve to die like that. I’m never going to recover from this,” Jamie Reed said.
When asked if the shooting was justified, Taylor said he had “no reason to think that the officer didn’t act appropriately” but would wait until the department completed its investigation to pass judgment.