Shooting victim fakes out hospital

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - Police say a shooting victim recently came into St. Joseph Hospital pretending he was someone else, likely because there were several warrants out for his arrest.

He told police and hospital officials his name was Damien Carlisle.

When that name showed up in a local newspaper reporting the minor shooting, though, it soon came to light that that was a false identity.

That's made life difficult for the real Damien Carlisle and his mom, Dorothy, who saw her son's name in the paper.

Since Damien's name has been associated with the shooting, Dorothy's phone has been ringing off the hook.
 

"Atlanta, Louisiana, my sister's calling [asking] 'what's going on, what's happening, why is this going on?' [We're saying] 'we don't know! All we can do is say, identity theft'," said Dorothy Carlisle.

Carlisle says when the shooting victim gave his name at St. Joseph Hospital, staff looked up the name and presented the man with all of Carlisle's personal information to verify it as correct.

Now Carlisle is not only afraid the man may use his information to do other things, he's worried the people involved in the shooting that night will target him now.

A hospital spokesperson could not comment on this specific case but he did give the following written statement:

"During the course of a patient's stay multiple attempts at verifying ID are made. Ultimately, if an individual chooses to commit fraud and misrepresent themselves - to police, to a hospital, to a department store, wherever - it can happen."

Police have identified the real shooting victim as Terrence Fincher, 34. They're continuing their search for him.

As far as Carlisle goes, he's going through the process of alerting the proper agencies of a potential identity theft.