Family Says Police Killed The Wrong Person In 9-Year-Old Stabbing Attack

Police killed the wrong person while trying to take down the man who stabbed a child repeatedly inside a Florida apartment. 

Officer Devin Dunn fatally shot 21-year-old #JahSeanHodge after he was seen “running erratically” with blood all over him following the 9-year-old girl’s stabbing at a Georgia Avenue apartment, the Orlando Sentinel reports. When St. Cloud Police Department released names and the 911 calls, the family of the child contacted police and told them they’d killed the wrong person. Two officers were reportedly involved in the shooting but only fired their weapon. One of the officers got into a struggle with the suspect, and an officer shot him. 

The girl, Jadalee, was taken to Arnold Palmer Hospital, where she is expected to recover. However, she sustained wounds in her neck and face. On Wednesday, Police Chief Pete Gauntlett spoke to reporters saying Hodge was responsible, but Jadalee’s mother, Veronica Synder, said Hodge was actually protecting her from an unknown intruder. Hodge is Snyder’s adopted brother. “He saved his niece’s life. He’s a hero,” said Snyder. 

When the incident was first called in, it was by Snyder’s boyfriend, who never mentioned Hodge. A separate caller told the 911 operator that a man who looked like Hodge’s description tried to flag down their vehicle while covered in blood on Georgia Avenue. “He was flopping his arms around. He was really injured, but he tried to stop us, and he didn’t,” said the caller. 

The officer who shot Hodge has been placed on administrative leave, but Gauntlett says the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has launched an investigation into the shooting, and the police department is investigating the stabbing. Snyder is asking that authorities find her daughter’s “real attacker.” Gauntlett says the details are “raw information” but that the thought that police killed the wrong person is “speculation on whoever’s part that is.” “It’s our understanding preliminarily that the suspect, in this case, was responsible for the stabbing,” Gauntlett said. “We have yet to confirm all the details.”