A student leader with a youth activist group that has been prominent in the push to remove police from Chicago Public Schools died Sunday morning after he was shot two days earlier in the West Rogers Park neighborhood.
Caleb Reed, a 17-year-old junior at Mather High School on the North Side, just weeks earlier had spoken about his traumatic experience with officers at his school at a news conference with public officials ahead of a Board of Education vote on a $33 million contract with the Chicago Police Department.
Late last week, officers found Reed lying on a sidewalk about 1 p.m. Friday in the 1900 block of West Granville Avenue, authorities said. He had been shot in the head and was taken to St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, according to Chicago police.
Reed died at the hospital about 6:40 a.m. Sunday, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. Area Three detectives are investigating the shooting.
Reed was a student leader with the group Voices of Youth in Chicago Education (VOYCE), which has been one of several student groups advocating for the removal of officers from CPS.
Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th) described Reed as “a light in our community,” retweeting a post from student-led anti-violence group GoodKids MadCity that highlighted Reed’s activism.
Caleb lived and was shot in our ward this weekend. He was a light in our community that was extinguished too soon. We need to address the root causes of #GunViolence so that we stop losing our people. I ask that people help continue the work he was doing and pray for the family. https://t.co/WFWv9DXY2Z
— Andre Vasquez, Political Account (@Andrefor40th) August 3, 2020
“Caleb was a son, a brother, a community organizer, and a neighbor. His light and potential have been extinguished at the hands of gun violence, like so many others in Chicago,” Vasquez said in a statement. “As a city we need to address the root causes of this violence, which is the segregation and disinvestment in the communities that need it the most for generations now.”
“Caleb was also an activist and advocate – most recently for the movement to remove School Resource Officers out of Chicago Public Schools. I ask that we honor his work by continuing it and we pray for his family,” Vasquez continued.
Reed spoke at a rally in June alongside other activists and Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20th) and Ald. Rod Sawyer (6th) to protest the contract between CPS and CPD, which the school board soon after narrowly voted to keep intact for now.
“My sophomore year of high school I was arrested for attending a basketball game because I didn’t have my ID,” Reed said at the rally outside City Hall. “I sat in a police station for six hours. I knew it wasn’t right at all, but inside I was angry, confused.
“One thing I’m here to say is I’m proud to be a Black young man,” Reed said. “It’s not a good feeling to be labeled as dangerous or criminals. Because we’re not. ... No Black person should ever feel like this.”
Contributing: Nader Issa
