Family of man shot and killed seeks answers after no arrests made

If you ask Reginald Hodge's family who he was, you'll hear things like, ‘a gentle giant’ and ‘a devoted dad.’

"His nature was always to be helping people and giving back," said Leesther Hodge, Reginald’s mother.

"He was an awesome father, there wasn't anything he wouldn't do for his kids," said LaShanta Hill, Reginald’s girlfriend.

He was taken away from his family back in February. His girlfriend LaShanta was an eyewitness to his killing on Feb. 24. She said she had gotten into an altercation about noise complaints with her downstairs neighbor. Reginald was inside the apartment still.

"The young lady was trying to get physical with me. He came downstairs to try to deescalate the situation and then that's when the guy came and shot him. Reginald didn't even do anything," said Hill.

On surveillance camera video, that his family did not want to release, Reginald is seen calmly walking down the steps to see what is going on, and just a few seconds later, a gunshot is heard.

The family's attorney, Robert Ranco, provided a photo showing police immediately detaining someone, but the attorney says he was released shortly after.

"There is a dangerous person out on the streets, there shouldn't be any reason why this person isn't at least held accountable for what escalated and shouldn't have happened, over nothing," said Hodge.

Ranco said while they wait for the criminal justice system to play out in this case, they are filing a lawsuit against Eryngo Hills complex.

"Under Texas law if you own and manage a property where it is known that violent occurrences happen on your property, the owner needs to take reasonable measures to make that property safe. Over the last five years, there were 72 pages of 911 calls that occurred just at that property," said Ranco.

The call log shows an array of categories, a lot of them violent in nature.

"Eryngo Hills has done absolutely nothing to make their property reasonably safe for tenants and guests," said Ranco.

Ranco said lock gates, cameras, or even a security team could have prevented this shooting which happened in broad daylight.

"We shouldn’t have this killer out on the streets when we know this was an unprovoked situation. Somebody needs to be held accountable for this killing, this murder," said Ranco.

For now, all that Hodge's family is left with are memories.

"He would put the kids on the balcony as we left and said goodbye. I would always wave to the kids and give my son a big hug, and he would hug me back, and we would tell each other we love each other. I can’t believe I don’t get to do that anymore," said Hodge.

FOX 7 Austin reached out to the Travis County District Attorney’s Office, but did not hear back. The Austin Police Department said the investigation is still ongoing, but nobody has been arrested, yet all parties involved were identified. The Eryngo Hills apartment complex told FOX 7 they will not comment on pending litigation.