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MATTESON, Ill. (BFMG) — A DoorDash delivery driver from Indiana has been ordered held without bond after prosecutors say he shot and killed an Amazon employee in a parking lot outside a suburban fulfillment center following a joking remark about the driver’s height.
Devonta Hodge, 33, of Gary, Indiana, is charged with homicide in the June 28 killing of 26-year-old Dylan Perkins outside the Amazon Fulfillment Center on Vollmer Road in Matteson, about 30 miles south of Chicago. Perkins worked as a janitorial employee at the facility.
“This was a senseless killing,” Cook County Judge Torrie Luciana Corbin wrote in a detention order keeping Hodge in custody pending trial.
Matteson police said officers were called to the facility at about 10:54 p.m. for reports of gunfire and arrived to find Perkins suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to his torso near the entrance. He was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead a short time later, according to the medical examiner’s office.
In court Thursday, prosecutors said Perkins was on break with two co-workers near the employee bus stop when Hodge arrived in a white Ford Escape to deliver a food order. As Hodge walked past, Perkins made a joking comment about Hodge’s height, and the men exchanged words before Hodge continued into the building to complete the delivery, prosecutors said.
Surveillance video shows Perkins later approaching Hodge outside the entrance as the driver was leaving, and the two briefly walking alongside each other. Hodge pushed Perkins away twice, then reached into his waistband, pulled out a handgun and fired multiple shots at Perkins, according to prosecutors. As Perkins collapsed, Hodge ran toward his vehicle, pointed the gun back toward the victim one last time, then got into the SUV and drove away, the video shows.
Police said the entire incident was captured on facility surveillance cameras. Investigators quickly identified Hodge as the DoorDash driver assigned to the delivery at the time of the shooting and tracked his movements. He was arrested on June 30 after voluntarily coming to the Matteson Police Department to speak with detectives, authorities said.
Prosecutors told the court that Hodge holds a valid Firearm Owner’s Identification card but does not have a concealed carry permit. They also said he has a prior conviction for unlawful use of a weapon.
In her written order, Corbin said Hodge “demonstrated emotional immaturity in how to resolve conflicts” and later “attempted to avoid responsibility by returning the vehicle he was driving to the owner and lying and saying the vehicle was missing.”
Hodge is being held at the Cook County Jail with no bond and is next scheduled to appear in court on July 16.
