Anthony Clark Reed, dead at the hands of Detroit police March 30, 2015.
He had asthma, told police, but they yanked him out of new Dodge Charger anyway, likely causing his death
Traffic stop took place at Vernor near Lawndale, two blocks from his father Pastor Kevin Clark’s church on Springwells
Mother Leda Reed: “This is ridiculous they are doing this to our children”
By Diane Bukowski
Updated April 2, 2014
Pastor Kevin Clark with Anthony Clark Reed’s twin sisters. Facebook.
DETROIT – Anthony D. Clark Reed, 24, took his last breath two blocks from his father Pastor Kevin Clark’s Springwells Avenue Baptist Church, after Detroit police officers stopped him on Vernor on the city’s southwest side March 30, allegedly because his car had tinted windows.
“I am devastated,” Pastor Clark said. “In a short time I have to bury my only son. This was definitely racial profiling. My son is 6’ 2” tall, and was driving a new Dodge Charger, right around the corner from my church. My son died on W. Vernor at the hands of the Detroit police.”
Clark said he talked to a witness who saw six police cars at the scene after his son’s body had been taken away. All the doors and the trunk to the car were open, indicating there had been a search.
Springwells Avenue Baptist Church during memorial April 1, 2015
He said a Lt. Mills contacted him two days after his son’s death to read him the police report, but that he still has not received a written copy. Mills did not tell him the names of the officers involved.
“They said they pulled him over because it looked like he was doing something under his seat,” Clark said. “I asked, don’t you realize he was probably looking for his inhaler because he has asthma? The first thing he said was ‘I can’t breathe.’ They yanked him out of the car, shortened his breath more, and increased his heart rate. That’s why he died.”
He said the police report claimed that the officers found his son’s inhaler, gave him two quick puffs, and when that didn’t work, performed CPR until EMS got there. EMS could not resuscitate him.
Anthony Clark Reed was pulled over on Vernor near Lawndale in the street in front of this liquor store, according to witnesses. His family is trying to obtain videos from all stores in area as well as police dashcam video. VOD did not find any direct eyewitnesses, but one woman said Anthony was a very good friend of her family. She said, “I live in the back of the building across the street. If I had been in front and saw what was happening, as a mother myself I would have gone done there.” Others in the area said police are constantly stopping people there, although there is a public library and youth center directly across the street.
Clark said it was amazing to him that there was no news coverage at all the night his son died, and that it took his son’s aunt calling Channel 7 from New York to get a brief broadcast on that station.
“I didn’t receive any information until 11 to 12 hours after my son took his last breath, when his mother called me to tell me he was in the hospital, after someone called her,” Clark said, adding that he drove as fast as he could from his home in Pontiac to meet her at Detroit Receiving Hospital.
“About 11 or 12 midnight, they took me downstairs to see his body,” Clark said. “There was no one from the Detroit Police Department, Internal Affairs, or the homicide division there. The only way we found out anything was from the chaplain at the hospital.”
Anthony’s mother Leda (misspelled above) Reed is interviewed at memorial by Channel 7.
Clark said he called the number the chaplain gave him, was told it the number for homicide, and that no one ‘was around,’ and ‘they had no police report.’
“Where are the officers that saw my son take his last breath?” Pastor Clark asked. He was told they were not around either.
“It is ridiculous they are doing this to our children,” Leda Reed told VOD in a phone interview. “Those tinted windows were factory-installed. Anthony was driving his girl-friend’s car, and the police hit the car. We finally found the car at the police impound.”
Ms. Reed said there was no cause to pull her son out of the car.
“My son was 24, and was going to Henry Ford College. He worked at the Chrysler plant in Wixom. I have three children, and I have made sure they got an education. He has twin sisters who are going to college, and they plan to be a doctor and a lawyer. My son just got a notice for an internship at Chrysler. I worked hard to raise and educate my children.”
On her facebook page, she added, “This is the time for everyone to stand up go get your t shirt the dpd said in a statement to channel 7 that my son is dead because they pulled him over for atinted window. When is that a crime. That’s on the car in question is how it came off the line. So in support get this pic with the statement I’M DEAD BECAUSE I HAD TINTED WINDOWS. Lets stop this before you lose your child, or loved one.
Yolanda Delgado
A friend of Ms. Reed’s, Yolanda Delgado, added: “Everybody in Michigan and BEYOND has to get out there and be vocal. . . .OUR CHILDREN are being murdered in the streets by the Men Who Swore to Protect Them. The death of my nephew is a repeat of the Eric Garner and Ferguson situations. How many more will die like this. Don’t wait until something like this touches your family or household. Do Something Now! . . . .pick up your phones and start calling people that hold the titles and offices in Detroit and Michigan state. Flood their lines and let them know this is not acceptable and they have to Do Their Jobs and Do Something about this. . . . . demand they step and push the Internal Affairs and local FBI units to launch an investigation against the officers involved. If we continue to stay silent our country will eventually become a military regime and all of our human rights preserved under the US Constitution will be erased forever.”
Ms. Reed referred VOD to her attorney, Wolfgang Mueller.
One of many national protests after NY grand jury refused to indict cops in death of Eric Garner in chokehold.
“Right now, details are scarce,” he said in an email. “The family has not been provided the names of the officers. I am doing a FOIA today. We are looking for surveillance video in the area, as there were cameras all around the area of the traffic stop. It appears the autopsy has not yet been performed. We will likely send the autopsy results to Dr. Werner Spitz. We will not know the cause of death until then. I don’t want to speak prematurely until we learn more.”
Pastor Clark said during a prayer service at his church for his phone, packed with relatives, and friends, many of whom had grown up with his family, that Police Chief James Craig had finally contacted him to apologize for the delay. (See photos of candelight vigil after prayer service below.)
VOD has not received a response from the Detroit Police Department regarding the following request:
I am requesting information regarding the death of Anthony Clark Reed on Vernor near Lawndale March 30, after being stopped by Detroit police. I would like the following: 1) A copy of the police report. 2) The names of the police officers who stopped Mr. Reed, plus the names of the other officers who came to the scene in six patrol cars. 3) Their reason for stopping him. His vehicle had factory-supplied lightly tinted windows. 4) Their reason for searching his vehicle. 5) A description of what they did to halt his death after he told them he couldn’t breathe. 6) A copy of the EMS report. 7) A statement regarding whether this was racial profiling, since this was a tall young Black man driving a new Dodge Charger in a multi-racial neighborhood.
No response to VOD request for info from Detroit Police Dept.
MLive reported that Detroit Police Officer Jennifer Moreno of the Media Relations Department said, “Officers did stop the gentleman for a traffic violation and subsequently he exited the vehicle … had an asthma attack. They gave him his inhaler (and) they administered CPR when the gentleman passed out and then (an ambulance) was ordered ..”
Channel 7, the Huffington Post, the Detroit News, MLive, and the Daily Mail have been the only news outlets to cover this case so far. The News article, by George Hunter, did not mention that Reed was Black, and carried no photo of him. The lack of news coverage of Reed’s death at the hands of the police is all the more startling because of the broad coverage given to the near-fatal choke-hold and beating of Floyd Dent in Inkster, MI. He too told notorious Inkster Robocop William Melendez, “I can’t breathe,” and said he was afraid he was about to die.
According to the group, Killed by Police, Reed’s death may bring the number of people killed by police in the U.S. since Jan. 1, 2015 to 292.
FUNERAL FOR ANTHONY CLARK REED WILL TAKE PLACE AT SPRINGWELLS BAPTIST CHURCH; TIME PENDING COMPLETION OF AUTOPS(IES).
CANDLELIGHT VIGIL FOR ANTHONY CLARK REED APRIL 1, 2015 AT THE SPRINGWELLS AVENUE BAPTIST CHURCH:
Many of Anthony’s young friends attended the prayer service and vigil.
Woman comforts grieving youth at the vigil.
Elders grieve for Anthony Clark Reed, 24.
Pastor Clark (upper right) speaks to mourners.
Woman in blue shirt that remembers Anthony
Related:
http://KilledByPolice.net/ and https://www.facebook.com/KilledByPolice
Stop visiting these gambling establishments take your money out of their banks.
Don’t parternize there restaurants, go to so called black dealerships and make every so called Negro accountable with your business but we have to be understanding also.
When we goto are own people for help take in consideration of difference in attuides
Think first. Start your own Business, but ask the Most High for help. Put away the cigarettes, weed, and lower intake of alcohol don’t buy stolen property, high lite your own property, with some type identfaction mark. Start your own community information center. The most important thing return back to God & Christ. Read the Laws and ask the MostHigh what would he have you todo. Don’t wait for man.
Marches and covering your mouths, laying in the streets and saying no just no peace fizzles out right after the demonstration. You are the most powerful people on the earth with the third best economic power/12 tribes of Israel which means prince of power. “Let the Most High Help us”
Not again! These killer cops have gone crazy and full of hate and rage toward black people in the u.s. Please have Anthony Clark Reed’s family call the Detroit chapter of National Action Network to help get their story out. Call 888-959-1197 for more details. And to anyone else out there who has lost loved ones to killer cops. Please call. Stop being silent.
Bull Shit,BullShit,No Word’s,Rip Bruh ,,KkkGet out the White Hoods ,Right into the PoPolice Car’s,,Shame ,Shame,,
TO THE REED & CLARK FAMILIES, MY NAME IS MERTILLA JONES. 1ST YOUR FAMILIES ARE IN MY PRAYERS, GOD BE WITH YOU AT ALL TIMES. MY GRANDDAUGHTER” AIYANA STANLEY- JONES WAS MURDERED MAY 16,2010 @ THE GUNS OF THE DETROIT POLICE DEPARTMENT. SHE WAS ONLY 7YRS. YOUNG. THE COP WHO SHOT HER IN HER HEAD AS SHE WAS SLEEPING ON THE COUCH W/ME IS JOSEPH WEEKLY. HE LIED AND SAID I CHARGED @ HIM MAKING HIS WEAPON DISCHARGE BLOWING AIYANA BRAINS OUT. I NEVER TOUCHED ANY OF THESE COPS. BUT IN DETROIT COURTS WEAKLY GOT AWAY W/MURDERING MY 7YR. YOUNG SLEEPING BEAUTY, BUT I WILL TAKE THIS AS FAR AS I CAN .ONCE AGAIN YOUR FAMILIES HAVE MY CONDOLENCES. PEACE. MERTILLA JONES
I can’t take it anymore. We are going to mobilize in Phoenix. We as activists and community leaders just finished a successful collaboration with the ACLU of Arizona to kill State Senate Bill 1445 that wanted to legalize a 60-day waiting period for the release of an officer’s name involved in the use of deadly force. When are most people going to wake up to the FACT that racism is a deadly disease in our society? I am a Street Team Member for Justice for Rumain and my son and his black friend whom I as my son also are Co-Leaders for Justice for Rumain Brisbon. But most people I come in contact with, black, brown, white alike, do not know his name. Rumain was killed on December 2, 2014, because a white police officer, Mark Rine, thought the plastic prescription bottle that he felt in his pocket during a struggle was a gun and he shot him in the torso. My white son’s mentor J. D. Lennox who was black was shot and killed in Phoenix two years ago when he was cornered on a patio and threw a plastic lawn chair at a white officer. My God, another sign from You! I CAN’T BREATHE!