LAS VEGAS, NV – Antoine Hodges is lucky to be alive after he was shot in the stomach by a police officer in a case of mistaken identity. “All I remember was me yelling at him, “I’m not your suspect. I know for sure I’m not your suspect,” Hodges said. He said he panicked when he saw the officer pull a gun on him and backed away, trying to calm the policeman down. When he reached behind him with his right hand to put his money away, Officer Jason Evans fired one shot right into his guts.
“There was no warning. He just fired,” Hodges said. The officer had mistaken his identity for another suspect in a homicide case. His lawyers filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Officer Evans, Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie and the Metropolitan Police Department. One lawyer said, “He was confronted with a police officer with his gun drawn in ready-fire mode. At that point in time Antoine did not face a situation where an officer was trying to find out information, but had made a determination to fire.”
Evans was placed on routine, paid administrative leave pending a criminal review by the Clark County District Attorney’s office and an internal review.
