Editor’s note: The video of this shooting incident is graphic. Please view with caution.
A man who was shot and killed on California’s Interstate 80, snarling traffic in both directions on one of the state’s busiest highways last week, has been identified as Demilo Trayuon Hodge, 45, of San Leandro, Calif.
Police say that Hodge, an entrepreneur who operated a limousine service in the Napa Valley, was suspected in a 2015 Fairfield, Calif., homicide, and was fatally shot by police Wednesday afternoon.
The East Bay Times reports that Hodge was shot after a police pursuit that ended in the westbound lanes of I-80 near Emeryville, Calif., after the SUV he was driving was disabled by a spike strip.
Police say that after his vehicle was stopped, they tried to get Hodge to surrender, but he did not, and instead fired on police after exiting the vehicle. Police shot him numerous times (investigators declined to say how many times he was hit or how many officers fired), with the San Francisco Chronicle reporting that more than 30 shots were fired. Hodge was later pronounced dead at an area hospital.
However, some who viewed the live video footage of the incident say that both of Hodge’s hands were visible as he exited the vehicle.
The East Bay Times reports that Hodge was wanted in connection with the Dec. 10, 2015, death of 68-year-old William Freeman, who had been fatally shot in his home in Fairfield.
A Fairfield police spokesperson said that the case remains active and declined to release information about why Hodge was considered a suspect.
Two of Hodge’s four children spoke with a local news station after their father’s death, and say they remember him as a loving and dedicated father.
Read more at the East Bay Times and the San Francisco Chronicle.