As Livestream Continued, Cop Joked About 'Closed Casket'

Indianapolis in an uproar after police kill 3 people in 8 hours
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted May 8, 2020 1:27 AM CDT
After Livestreamed Police Shooting, Cop Made a 'Closed Casket' Joke
Charles Due III gathers with community members for a vigil and protest for Dreasjon Reed on Thursday, May 7, 2020.   (Mykal McEldowney/The Indianapolis Star via AP)

After an Indianapolis man was killed by police on a livestream being watched by his family, a detective joked, "Think it’s going to be a closed casket, homie," apparently referring to Dreasjon Reed's funeral. The New York Times reports that detail in a larger piece on an 8-hour stretch in the city that saw three people killed by cops—two of them shot, and the third a pregnant woman who was hit by a police car. Protesters started gathering hours after Reed, 21, was shot and killed Wednesday night in the first of the three encounters; police say he was running from cops after a chase that started after officers saw him nearly strike several cars while driving recklessly, and that he exchanged gunfire with the officers. But activists are wary of that version of events, and some are calling for charges against the officer who shot Reed.

The livestream, which Reed himself was streaming on Facebook Live, also captures that officer showing what the police chief says is "remorse, sadness, frustration and anguish" after shooting Reed, repeatedly crying out, "Oh my God" along with a number of expletives. Police say shots were fired after a Taser was "ineffective," USA Today reports. The next death came shortly thereafter Wednesday night, when 23-year-old Ashlynn Lisby was hit and killed, along with her unborn child, by an officer driving to work; police say she was in a lane of traffic on a highway on-ramp. Overnight, four police officers who went to investigate a burglary report at an apartment were confronted by a man holding a rifle, who fired at them. They returned fire and the 19-year-old was killed; it's not yet clear if he lured officers to the scene to ambush them or whether the incident had anything to do with Reed's shooting hours earlier. (More Indianapolis stories.)

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