A Black woman who was held at gunpoint by a Minneapolis Parks police officer after discovering she was licensed to carry a firearm, is finally speaking about the incident. After three years, she shared details about the traffic stop that changed her life and eventually led the city to award her with a six-figure settlement.
Minneapolis ABC affiliate KTSP recently spoke with Jenice Hodge about the July 2019 event where Officer Calvin Pham aimed his weapon at her — an altercation that cost the city $100,000.
While reflecting on the day, she said she believed “it was just going to be a regular routine stop.”
The officer’s bodycam video showed that from the start of their interaction there was conflict. Hodge asked the officer why she was being pulled over, and he noted she had her phone in her hand and her seat belt was not on.
She replied, “Yup, because I am using my GPS to drop my food off.” The driver further explained that her safety buckle was strapped in, her arm was placed over the portion intended to go across her breast, and that she had never been cited for this in the past.
Pham did not address her comments but asked for her driver’s license.
Hodge reached for her purse and set it on her lap between her chest and the steering wheel. As she rummaged through her bag to find her wallet, she simultaneously called her husband. While pulling her ID out to hand to Pham, he asks her to turn her vehicle off.
When Hodge responds by asking why, Pham draws his gun and pulls the door open, screams at her, and commands her to get out of the car.
A frightened Hodge cries out to her husband that the officer has pulled his gun on her.
The entire incident from their first words to Hodge being instructed to exit her vehicle was less than 60 seconds.
“I didn’t even have my driver’s license out of the sleeve and I had a gun pointed at me,” she shared. “I was confused and scared. And I didn’t know what was going on.”
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