Carlisle Man Jailed In Monday’s Shooting
The Patriot News
July 19, 2007
By T.W. Burger
of The Patriot News
A 22-year-old Carlisle resident has been arraigned in a shooting Monday night that left a woman hospitalized with a head wound.
Carlisle Mayor Kirk Wilson said at a news conference Thursday night that Anthony P. Hodge, 22, of 248 Franklin Street had been arrested and charged with firing nine shots on a borough street late Monday night.
One of those shots struck Trakia Houdeshell, 27, in the head as she was sitting on her front porch 150 yards away in the 200 block of W. North Street. She has been treated and released for the wound, which police believe to have been unintentional.
Hodge’s friends and family stood in the front of the Carlisle police station insisting that police had the wrong man. Wilson said he reviewed the arrest information with investigators.
“I am confident that we have the right man,” he said.
Wilson said police believe that Hodge fired nine shots at a car that was driving through the neighborhood in an incident that involved a dispute over the affections of a woman. Police recovered nine spent shell casings from a spot in the 100 block of W. North Street.
Hodge’s arrest comes in the wake of three shooting incidents in the Cumberland County seat since Monday. All three incidents occurred in the borough’s northwestern section. Police have made an arrest in Tuesday’s shooting on Fairground Avenue that left one man injured. Police do not believe that shooting was related to the one on Monday.
The third shooting took place at about 3 p.m. Thursday in an alley near the 100 block of West North Street. No injuries were reported, Wilson said, adding that police are investigating to see if that shooting is related to Monday’s incident.
Justin McShane, Hodge’s attorney, said Thursday’s shooting was related to Monday’s incident.
“For a period of three weeks, my client has been harassed, threatened and shot at several times, and yet he is the only one in custody,” he said, adding that the shots fired Thursday were fired at his client. “The people of Carlisle want peace and they want to be safe, and that won’t happen until the responsible parties are in custody, and that is not the case now.”
Wilson said that Hodge was not taken into custody until after the shots were fired on Thursday.
McShane said he would neither “deny nor assert” Hodge’s responsibility in the gunplay or in Houdeshell’s injury. “But this did not occur in a vacuum. My client is not responsible for everything that happened,” he said.
Hodge was arraigned late Thursday afternoon before Magisterial District Judge Jessica Brewbaker on charges of attempted homicide, aggravated assault, nine counts of recklessly endangering, and criminal mischief. He is in the county lockup on $2 million bail.
Carlisle Police were aided by county probation officers, FBI agents and a state police helicopter Wednesday as they searched two homes in connection with Monday’s shooting. Heavily armed police, probation officers and FBI agents aided by a state police helicopter searched two houses on Franklin and West North streets as part of the probe into Houdeshell’s shooting.
Wilson said there are no other suspects so far, but he said the investigation has been widened to include other unsolved incidents of gunfire in that part of town.
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