'You shot the wrong person': Mother says son shot by police mistaken for assault suspect
WASHINGTON - The man a D.C. police officer shot on Friday on Good Hope Road, is not the suspect they were searching for.
The mother of Steven Shaw, the man shot tells FOX 5 that her son is in the ICU handcuffed to his hospital bed.
"You know he wasn't the person you were looking for. And you going to tell me my son is handcuffed, and I can't see him," said Dorothy Hoes.
This mother has not seen her son Steven since he was shot by an officer on Friday morning around 10 a.m.
"That's my son on the ground," Hoes says as she watches a video of her sons arrests moments after he was shot.
In the video captured by a witness, you see 38-year-old Shaw in handcuffs on the ground.
Police were called to the 1300 Block of Good Hope Rd about an altercation.
When they arrived, they found a female victim who told police a man hit her with a metal box, threatened her and left the scene.
One officer started searching the area for the suspect the woman described and approached Shaw who was in the passenger seat of a parked car.
"I'm the young lady that was driving the car that Steven Shaw was shot in," said Hoes.
She witnessed the shooting. She says the officer asked Shaw to step out of the car several times.
"Steve was like 'I'm not getting out my mother's car because I didn't do anything," she adds.
Police say Shaw did not comply and reached into his waistband before the officer fired his weapon.
"I seen when he shot him. I saw the light and then the smoke and Steven said, 'man why did you shoot me?" said Hoes.
Shaw was taken to Medstar Washington Hospital Center for surgery where he was also arrested for possession with intent to distribute cocaine.
Another man, 59-year-old Wallace Lewis is facing several charges in connection with the assault and is the man police were originally searching for.
Dorothy stopped by the hospital on Sunday but wasn't allowed to see her son.
"They said the bullet ripped his whole stomach apart. They said they had to replace everything, damn near," she adds.
During our interview, Dorothy got a call from her son's doctor. Steven is doing much better.
Doctors removed his breathing tube.
Earlier in the investigation Chief Robert Contee was looking to speak with Hoes, who was the driver of the car.
In a press conference on Friday Chief Contee said "I'm appealing to her please we really want to talk to you."
Hoes tells us she panicked when she heard the gunshot.
"I was nervous. That's the only reason why I left," she adds.
She eventually made her way to the precinct to speak to police.
"Something definitely needs to be done. He didn't do anything wrong. He was not the person. You made a mistake but still you got him lying there. He may not walk again," she adds.
Police say the officer involved in the shooting is on administrative leave.
The body camera footage in this incident is under review.