Trigger Warning: This story contains details about violence.
On August 25, 2023, an Oklahoma cop wrongly shot Demetrize Carter in the chest during a high school football game between Del City and Choctaw high schools in Oklahoma. Carter, a 45-year-old Black man, has now filed a federal lawsuit against Del City Police Officer Shawn Hogue, alleging excessive force and racial bias.
The incident occurred when Demetrize Carter allegedly said he was not involved in the shooting and was trying to help when Hogue shot him. Moreover, Carter’s attorney, Billy Clark, claimed that Shawn Houge targeted him due to a personal grudge from a previous incident and accused the police officer of having “racial implicit biases, prejudices, and discrimination toward African Americans,” according to the filed lawsuit.
According to The Atlanta Black Star, the shooting happened during the third quarter of the game at the Choctaw Yellowjackets Stadium. A fight broke out as gunshots were fired.. Demetrize Carter was watching the game just like everyone else, and as panic began, he tried to control the situation by telling students to stop fighting.
Officer Hogue and another Del City officer, working off-duty security at the game, responded with their weapons. Despite Carter raising his hands and trying to tell Shawn that he was not involved, he was shot twice in the chest.
Demetrize Carter, shot by police during the 2023 Choctaw HS football game shooting, has filed a federal lawsuit claiming his rights were violated and that he posed no threat when shot. #Oklahoma #Choctaw https://t.co/AZqWUXtkEr
— News 9 (@NEWS9) August 25, 2025
“While on the ground, Carter began to bleed profusely from the large hole in his chest,” the lawsuit reads. “Officers continued to scan the area for threats rather than immediately rendering aid,” the outlet stated. Meanwhile, attorney Bill Clark said that Carter would not have been shot if he weren’t a man of color and added, “We are alleging that officer Hogue and his partner violated Carter’s civil rights by shooting him without provocation.”
Dallas based attorney Billy Clark announced a protest rally Thursday advocating for transparency in the shooting of Demetrize Carter by a Del City police officer last fall at a high school football game.
Earlier this month a grand jury declined to indict the officer. pic.twitter.com/mz1FbEy2KW
— Matt Patterson (@mattpattokc) May 2, 2024
However, Gary James, Hogue’s attorney, claimed Carter was shot because ‘he didn’t comply’, and instead was found with a gun, which, by the way, was never claimed or confirmed to belong to anyone. James did not accept that the authorities refused to release the body cam videos, thereby questioning the transparency in the case.
“Anybody who knows Shawn Hogue knows he is not a racist,” Gary James said. “These are fabricated statements from a plaintiff attorney out of state.” While Carter’s lawyer, Billy, defended the statement, he added that the footage plays an essential role in the case. “When law enforcement hides footage, people naturally ask, ‘Why are you hiding this?’ Transparency is essential for public trust,” he added.
In a similar case, that night, another 16-year-old, Cordae Carter (unrelated to Demetrize), was shot during the same incident. While he died a 15-year-old, Davyion Hamilton was arrested a month later and spent four months in jail on murder charges before the case was shut in January 2024.
Several crimes take place in the country on the grounds of racial bias, discrimination due to religion, gender, and so on. It’s a shame that, despite living in 2025, where people use AI platforms to access information in seconds, the mindset still seems to be rooted in colorism, which explains the years of struggle these people have gone through.
