Six cops fired their weapons in the fatal shooting of a Union Square security guard on Dec. 20, according to new footage released by the San Francisco Police Department.
Police identified the guard as Peter Francis Hodge Jr., 50, who was shot and killed by police outside a Dior storefront on Grant Avenue. His identity had been widely reported by the media following the shooting but was not confirmed by authorities until Monday.
Police body-camera footage shows that the encounter between officers and Hodge escalated quickly. Officers confronted Hodge around 1:38 a.m. and told him to put up his hands and turn around.
Hodge puts his hands up but does not turn around, facing officers and asking “For what?” before beginning to walk away. One officer says “I’m gonna wrap him” before firing a BolaWrap restraint device at Hodge, which fails, and another fires a bean-bag gun at Hodge.
After, Hodge begins to walk away and reaches towards his waist. Two officers can be heard shouting “he’s reaching, he’s reaching.”
After the officers deploy the less-lethal tools, Hodge can be seen in the body-camera footage reaching for his waist and pulling out a handgun before pointing it in the direction of officers, who fire at him.
The SFPD did not say whether Hodge fired his weapon or how many times officers fired theirs. Investigators recovered a Glock pistol with 14 unfired .357-caliber rounds, one .357 casing, 21 fired .223 casings, eight fired .40 casings, two bean-bag rounds and casings, and one BolaWrap Kevlar cord and prong. Police confirmed the Glock belonged to Hodge but did not confirm if he fired his gun.
Acting Commander Mark Im identified the officers who shot at Hodge as Kevin Lara, Manuel Serrano, George Raymond, Leonard Caldera, Diane Khuu, and Shante Williams.
The SFPD said Hodge was the motorist suspected of plowing into two young women on a sidewalk at Kearny and Sutter streets at “a high rate of speed” around 6:30 p.m. Dec. 19. He then ran down a nearby bicyclist on an e-bike, police said.
One of the women who was hit by Hodge’s SUV said the car hit her thigh and ran over her foot, according to 911 call audio shown by police.
“Me and my friend just got hit by a car exiting Chipotle, they drove through the sidewalk…They ran over her and then ran over the whole sidewalk,” the caller said.
Surveillance video of the crash shows three people on the sidewalk on Kearney Street as an SUV rapidly approaches them. Two of them appear to get out of the SUV’s way in time while the third is pushed into the street after being hit.
The SUV then turns onto Sutter Street and strikes the cyclist halfway down the block. After crashing into the cyclist, who was launched off the bike but fled on foot, Hodge unsuccessfully tried to put the bike in his car and took a bag that was attached to the bike. Police also said Hodge had switched out the license plates on his car when they met him hours later.
Surveillance video of the collision with pedestrians and the cyclist shows Hodge’s SUV had flashing lights similar to those used by emergency vehicles.
A witness who works in the area but did not want to be named due to fears of retribution by his employer said the suspect worked security at the Dior store.
A Dior spokesperson told The Standard by phone that the suspect is “not employed by Dior.” The spokesperson declined to elaborate when asked if the man was a third-party contractor.
Hodge thought highly of law enforcement, was a gun ownership advocate, and ran a private security firm called Covert Guardian Solutions based in Lodi, in San Joaquin County, according to a report by Mission Local.