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Mother of North Las Vegas homicide victim keeps asking ‘Why?’

The mother of a young man killed in a North Las Vegas shooting in December can’t stop asking, “Why? Just why?”

So far, police don’t have an answer for her.

Dimitri Hodges wept and said she hasn’t been able to eat, sleep or think in the days following the killing of her firstborn, “a mama’s boy,” Anthony Eugene Hodges. He was 20.

A driver spotted him suffering from gunshot injuries about 6 p.m. Dec. 30 on a sidewalk below a train underpass east of Lake Mead Boulevard and Losee Road in North Las Vegas. Anthony Hodges was taken to University Medical Center, where he died.

Dimitri Hodges said she remembered her son’s compassion. When Anthony was 4, he became an older brother.

“He would tell me, ‘You need to eat, too, Mommy,’” anytime he saw his brother, Ahmaud Hodges, being fed.

Dimitri Hodges said Anthony’s three brothers and two sisters are devastated.

“My next oldest is 17, and I’m so scared for his life,” she said, pausing several times to catch her breath while crying. “I’m so scared because he’s so upset over his brother.”

For Aaron Holliman, the gaping hole left from his stepson’s death has been awful to bear.

“Man, life’s been empty,” Holliman said quietly. “I’m hanging in there.”

Holliman described Anthony Hodges’ bright smile and contagious laughter and remembered the joy of meeting him four years ago. They grew close, bonding over sports and drawing.

“I considered him as a son,” he said.

Life without Anthony Hodges means “no more funny jokes, no more smiles, no more of his good spirit,” Holliman said.

North Las Vegas police hadn’t identified a suspect or released details about Anthony Hodges’ shooting death as of Wednesday.

“A mother has lost a child so soon,” Moneisha Hodges Barefield, Anthony Hodges’ cousin, said on a GoFundMe page established to help with funeral costs.

Dimitri Hodges and Holliman wish they could tell their son one last time that they’re proud of him.

“I just wish he was here to fulfill his dreams,” she said.

Anthony Hodges’ stepfather added, “He was really going to make a change in the world.”

Contact Rio Lacanlale at rlacanlale@reviewjournal.com or at 702-383-0381. Follow @riolacanlale on Twitter.

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