Dreasjon “Sean” Reed

Dreasjon “Sean” Reed, 21, a former U.S. Air Force airman and legal gun owner, was shot and killed by Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Officer Dejoure Mercer on May 6, 2020, at the end of a high-speed chase Reed livestreamed on Facebook to thousands of viewers in real time. The chase itself had been called off by IMPD's own chief for being too dangerous; Mercer, on foot, caught up to Reed after he parked and ran. The livestream's shaky camera captured the sound of a Taser and then gunshots, but never showed the shooting itself clearly, and no body camera or dashcam footage of the moment existed. Police said Reed fired at Mercer first; his family's attorney said he never had a gun in his hand at all. A detective who later walked past Reed's body was recorded joking it would be a “closed casket” and was internally disciplined for it. A special grand jury declined to indict Mercer in November 2020, six months after the shooting. No one has ever been charged in Reed's death.

Indianapolis, IN · Marion County

• 2020: Case opens — victim reported missing or found.
• Documented milestones (renewed investigation, media coverage, family advocacy) to be added as sourced.
• Present: case remains unresolved. No named suspect has been convicted.

• The chase, the foot pursuit, and the shooting, per IMPD statements and Reed's own Facebook Live video, which was watched by thousands as it happened.
• IMPD Deputy Chief Kendale Adams's pursuit of Reed on the interstate was called off by supervisors roughly 10 minutes in for being too dangerous; Officer Mercer separately spotted Reed's parked car and continued the pursuit on foot alone.
• No body camera or dashcam footage of the shooting itself exists; the only contemporaneous recording is Reed's own Facebook Live stream, whose camera did not capture the shooting clearly.
• Police said Reed and Mercer exchanged gunfire and that a gun found near Reed had likely been fired twice; the family's attorney stated at a press conference that Reed “did not shoot a gun, did not point a gun, did not brandish a gun at an officer.”
• A separate officer at the scene was recorded on another device joking that Reed's death would require a “closed casket”; IMPD disciplined that officer following public backlash.
• Special Prosecutor Rosemary Khoury convened a six-person special grand jury, which returned a “no bill” on November 10, 2020, finding insufficient probable cause to indict Mercer.
• Reed's death was the first of three separate fatal police encounters in Indianapolis within roughly 24 hours that month, prompting sustained protests across the city.
• Reed's family filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city, IMPD, the police chief, and the involved officers.

• Whether Reed in fact fired at or pointed a weapon toward Mercer, as police maintained, or never held a gun during the confrontation, as the family's attorney stated, was never resolved by any criminal trial, and the shooting itself was not captured on any camera.
• Surveillance footage later obtained by local reporters reportedly showed Reed running with a t-shirt in one hand and cell phones in the other in the moments before the confrontation, which the family's attorney cited as inconsistent with him also holding and firing a weapon; how that footage was weighed by the grand jury is not public.
• The full reasoning behind the grand jury's no-bill decision has not been made public, as Indiana grand jury proceedings are sealed.

• NPR — “Indianapolis Grand Jury Declines To Indict Officer Who Killed Dreasjon Reed”
• Indianapolis Recorder — “2020 Year in Review: Police shooting of Dreasjon Reed brought protests, but no charges”
• TheGrio — “Indiana grand jury decides no charges in fatal shooting of Sean Reed”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs