A man has been shot in Southeast D.C., leading to accusations of mistaken identity against the police officer involved.
Dorothy Hoes, the 64-year-old mother, who was in the car with her son, Steven Shaw, when he was shot, is speaking out about the incident.
According to Hoes, the officer asked her son to exit the vehicle, and when he resisted, the officer opened fire, even though her son had not committed any crime.
Mom shares story of D.C. Police shooting her son
Fox News reported that police officers were called to Good Hope Road SE to respond to an altercation between a man and a woman.
Upon arrival, the woman informed the officers that the man had hit her with a metal box, threatened her, and fled the scene.
One of the officers began searching the area for the suspect, which matched the woman's description, and approached a parked car where Steven Shaw was sitting in the passenger seat with his mother.
According to Hoes, the officer asked Shaw to step out of the car multiple times. However, Shaw refused, saying he had not done anything wrong.
Despite this, the officer claimed that Shaw did not comply and reached into his waistband before the officer fired his weapon. Hoes recalled that the officer told her son that he would shoot if he kept moving his hand.
But before he could react, the officer fired the weapon, hitting Shaw in the back.
WUSA9 reported that Hoes, sitting in the car's driver's seat, watched as her son was shot. She maintained that her son was not carrying a weapon and did not pose a threat to the officer.
Shaw was rushed to the hospital for surgery, where doctors discovered he had suffered serious injuries.
According to Hoes, the bullet had ripped her son's stomach apart, and he required additional surgeries to repair the damage.
As Shaw recovered, Hoes left to deal with the incident's aftermath. She described feeling powerless and frustrated that her son was unjustly hurt.
The pain and trauma caused by the incident left her with a sense of deep injustice as she watched her son struggle to recover from his injuries.
Doctors warned that her son could face serious medical complications, leaving Hoes worried about what the future holds for her family.
DC police authorities arrested Wallace Lewis
Following the altercation between the man and the woman on Good Hope Road SE, police later arrested 59-year-old Wallace Lewis in connection with the reported attack.
Lewis was charged with assault with significant bodily injury and threats to do bodily harm in connection to the assault that the woman reported.
The officer involved in the shooting has been placed on administrative leave in accordance with the policy of the Metropolitan Police Department.
According to The Washington Post, the department is reviewing the body-worn camera footage from the incident to determine the circumstances surrounding the shooting.
D.C. police have been given until Friday to release the officer's identity and the video from the body camera unless Shaw objects.
Since the arrest of Lewis in connection with the reported assault, his lawyer has stated that prosecutors did not pursue criminal charges against him. The U.S. attorney's office in D.C. has confirmed this account but has declined to provide further details about the case.
The mother hopes that the body camera footage will provide a clear understanding of what happened and bring about justice for her son.
