Unreleased body-worn video part of legal battle 2 years after shooting at Choctaw football game

Body-worn camera footage remains the foundation of competing arguments regarding gunshots at a Choctaw High School football game on Aug. 25, 2023. 

16-year-old Cordea Carter was shot and killed, and a girl was struck by a bullet. The criminal investigation to determine who shot those teens is ongoing, and police have not publicly named any suspects. 

A responding Del City Police officer, working security for the away team, shot Demetrize Carter in the chest, who is now 45 years old. 

Officers perceived a threat from Carter, who shares no relation to the 16-year-old Carter. 

On Monday, Carter’s attorney, Billy Clark, announced a federal civil rights lawsuit against the individual officers, Del City Police and the city, and Choctaw Nicoma Park Schools. 

"The body camera is important for several reasons,” Clark explained during a press conference. “Number one, it tells the community that the police officers are being transparent. They're letting us know what's going on with their police. They're not keeping secrets. When you hide things, the first thing we're going to think is, ‘okay, why are you hiding this information?’” 

News 9 has made several record requests from multiple agencies that possess copies of the body-worn camera footage. No copy of the footage has been publicly released. 

Gary James is an attorney for Del City officer Shawn Hogue, who is named in the federal lawsuit alongside an unnamed partner who was also at the game that night. James has not yet provided a comment regarding the recently announced lawsuit but has previously defended the officer’s actions. 

"It was a very justified decision to use deadly force," James said in a September 2023 interview with News 9. "He didn’t comply.” 

A grand jury declined to bring criminal charges against Hogue in April of 2024. 

Clark plans to push to take his civil lawsuit to trial and have a copy of the body-worn camera footage produced through discovery. 

“The only way we can find it out is by looking at the data, looking at the video, so that we can figure out what happened together as a community,” Clark said.