City settles: Killeen, police officers agree to $338,000 settlement with family over no-knock warrant death

Killeen Daily Herald
By Emily Hilley-Sierzchula, Herald correspondent
August 10, 2023

More than four years after a 40-year-old Killeen man was shot and killed by police during a no-knock raid, the city has agreed to a settlement offer to the man’s mother, who filed a federal civil rights lawsuit.

It was Feb. 27, 2019, when Killeen police officers opened fire on the house at 215 W. Hallmark Avenue. When the gunfire stopped, James “Scottie” Reed, a drug dealer who was armed but did not fire his handgun, had been killed by a single bullet, according to the Texas Rangers report on the incident.

James Reed’s mother, Dianne Reed-Bright, filed her initial complaint in federal court in Waco on May 27, 2020, naming as defendants the City of Killeen and four individual officers: Anthony Custance, Richard A. Hatfield Jr., Fred L. Baskett and Christian Suess. (Suess was dismissed from the lawsuit in 2021.)

After years of legal motions and judge’s orders, Judge Robert Stem on July 6, mediated a formal meeting that resulted in an agreement for the City of Killeen, Hatfield, Baskett and Custance pay a total amount of $338,000, “in exchange for a full and final release of all claims and causes of action, and a dismissal with prejudice of the pending lawsuit,” according to the mediated settlement agreement filed in federal court on July 31.

A few days later, on Aug. 2, U.S. Magistrate Judge Derek T. Gilliland ordered that all parties attend another half-day mediation session with Stem “to resolve the outstanding issues with the Mediated Settlement Agreement.”

The City of Killeen confirmed that an offer had been made and that no check has been written.

“The case is still pending,” according to Killeen spokeswoman Janell Ford on Aug. 3. “If a settlement is ultimately reached, TML-IRP (Texas Municipal League Intergovernmental Risk Pool, a liability insurance policy) would provide the settlement funds.”

‘THEY MURDERED HIM’

Even with an end to the lawsuit in sight, one Reed family member continues to search for answers.

“Before, no one was able to come to an agreement that everyone agreed with but they were able to come up with an out-of-court settlement based on the mediator’s proposal,” said Jumeka Reed, James Reed’s sister, who attended the all-day mediation session in July. She spoke with the Herald on Aug. 4. “Personally, I would have preferred to go to a jury trial. We still haven’t gotten any answers because there’s not been any discovery (the legal process of exchanging evidence). I still want to know who fired that first shot because it wasn’t my brother. I’m glad it’s over with, but we’re in the same place as we were the day he died, so no one is happy.”

The one officer who was indicted on any charges, Custance, is not the person who fired the shot that killed James Reed, according to KPD, previously. Custance resigned from the department following the incident. He was sentenced by a judge on Dec. 2, 2019, to six years of deferred adjudication probation after he pleaded guilty to a third-degree felony charge of tampering with evidence.

“I still think there should be a murder charge because they murdered him,” Jumeka Reed said. “I’m not content and I’ll continue to try to get justice for my brother.”

NO-KNOCK RAIDS

No-knock raids have been a relic of the past in Killeen since the city council banned the tactic in 2021; but before that, KPD was conducing early morning no-knock warrants regularly.

According to a previous Texas Public Information Act request by the Herald, KPD executed 81 no-knock warrants throughout the city from 2012 to Feb. 27, 2019, the day Reed died. More than 64%, or 52, of those raids occurred in 2016 and 2017.

Thirteen physical injuries and two fatalities resulted during those 81 raids. The seven occupants and six officers who were injured sustained mostly minor injuries such as abrasions and cuts from glass.

“When KPD banned no-knocks (after the city council vote in 2021), it shows they knew their tactics and policies were wrong, especially the ones at my brother’s house and at Marvin Guy’s,” Jumeka Reed said.

There is one certainty: the two no-knock fatalities continue to reverberate.

KPD Detective Charles “Chuck” Dinwiddie was shot by Guy during a no-knock raid on May 9, 2014. Dinwiddie died two days later. Less than three months after his death, the department’s SWAT team executed another no-knock warrant.

Guy, who has said he didn’t immediately know it was police breaking into his apartment at 5 a.m. that morning, is set to face a jury in October on a capital murder charge.