Schaston Hodge, black man killed by white Texas troopers, was shot 16 times

Associated Press in Dallas
Sat 4 Jan 2020 18.32 GMT
First published on Sat 4 Jan 2020 18.16 GMT

The autopsy report of a man who was shot dead by two state troopers after a traffic stop in Dallas shows he had 16 gunshot wounds, including shots to the head, front and back torso and both legs.

Schaston Hodge, 27, was shot dead by the troopers Joshua Engleman and Robert Litvin on 17 August, following what police described as a short pursuit after the troopers attempted to stop Hodge for failing to use a turn signal.

The Dallas Morning News obtained the autopsy report by the Dallas county medical examiner.

“They killed my son like he was an animal,” Hodge’s mother, Shandra Brackens-Hodge, said in a statement to the newspaper. “They shot my son 16 times, they almost blew his head off.”

Engleman and Litvin were working in Dallas as part of Texas governor Greg Abbot’s decision to send troopers to help city police during an increase in violent crime.

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South Dallas man slain by DPS troopers after traffic stop had 16 gunshot wounds, autopsy shows

‘They killed my son like he was an animal,' says mother after new details emerge in August case

By Cassandra Jaramillo
7:27 PM on Jan 3, 2020

Schaston Hodge, who was shot in August by DPS troopers patrolling South Dallas, died with 16 gunshot wounds in his body, according to an autopsy by the Dallas County Medical Examiner.

The Dallas Morning News obtained the autopsy Friday. It revealed new details in the fatal August 17, 2019, shooting, which occurred after troopers stopped Hodge for failing to signal a turn. The Texas Department of Public Safety said that Hodge was armed at the time of the shooting and fired at the troopers but has declined to release footage of the incident.

According to the autopsy, Hodge was shot five times in the front and four times in the back of his torso. Other bullets went through his head. He was also shot in the right and left thigh. The autopsy also showed he had alcohol and marijuana in his system.

His mother, Shandra Brackens-Hodge, through her attorney Temani Adams, issued a statement angrily denouncing the troopers’ actions and the subsequent investigation.

“They killed my son like he was an animal. They shot my son 16 times, they almost blew his head off,” Brackens-Hodge wrote.

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