1. “Justice For Dixie”. Police Officer Unloads Multiple Rounds Into A Family’s Yellow Labrador; Neighbor: “She Just Wanted To Be Petted.”
As Rachel Vadaj and Kelly Kennedy report for Channel 19 news in Cleveland, Ohio:
“The 3-year-old lab mix named Dixie was shot and killed by a Lorain Police officer … It was about 1:45 p.m. when Mellenie noticed a Lorain Police officer pull up. ‘I thought hey this man’s gonna help us stop traffic so if any of our dogs do happen to run in the street, he was gonna stop it that’s what most cops do,’ Mellenie said. Sadly, that’s not what happened. Mellenie said she had gotten a hold of two of her dogs, including Dixie, when the officer started yelling.
…
Mellenie said the first bullet hit Dixie in the spine. ‘She dropped to the ground with a yelp,’ Mellenie recalled. ‘A car almost hit her and she had to pull herself back across the street so she would not get hit. She could not move either of her back legs. That was enough at that point. He could’ve stopped. He unloaded three more bullets into her in the driveway. There were children out and these bullets could have gone through my dog and ricocheted. They could’ve missed my dog and ricocheted and hit a child, a little kid.’”
Here is the body camera footage of the deadly encounter:
Unfortunately, this is a scenario that plays out thousands of times each year in neighborhoods across the country. Here’s Courtney Lee, a law professor at the McGeorge School of Law:
“The Department of Justice estimates that American police officers shoot 10,000 pet dogs in the line of duty each year … [M]any pet shootings occur when officers mistake the behavior of a friendly, curious dog for aggression. Further, some animals have been deliberately shot and killed under questionable circumstances, including through doors or while tied, running away, or hiding. Studies show that some officers shoot pets unnecessarily, recklessly, or in retaliation, and that subsequent civilian complaints are investigated inadequately. Moreover, not every animal that police officers shoot is a large dog that may be more likely to pose a genuine risk to human safety—or even a dog at all. Police claiming a threat to human safety have shot puppies, Chihuahuas, Miniature Dachshunds, and domestic cats, among other pets. In some tragic cases, bullets missed their nonhuman targets and injured or even killed human bystanders instead.”
In addition to the devastation that killing a family pet causes to the family, as Professor Lee explains, “pet shootings can seriously damage public relations for law enforcement agencies, especially during an era when the news seems to be saturated with stories concerning police using excessive force against unarmed civilians.”
The Lorain Police Department has not yet made a determination of whether the officer who fired four rounds into a yellow lab violated department policy. And, in some circumstances, highly aggressive dogs do pose an imminent threat to officer safety (though, notably, no police officer has died in the line of duty from a dog attack in at least 70 years, according to a review of Officer Down Memorial Page data by the news site Criminal Legal News). But, from the vantage point that the video provides in this case, it’s hard to draw the conclusion that Dixie posed any reasonable danger to anyone except those deathly allergic to doggy licks.
That’s why the family of the slain labrador—and many of the community members who showed up for a “Justice For Dixie” rally in support of Dixie—say they want the officer fired. As Dixie’s owner, Tammy Kern, told Fox news, the family will accept nothing short of “Justice for Dixie … We want everybody to know this guy needs to get off the street.’”
2. New Poll: When it comes to discipline for “a police officer who kills a family’s pet,” most Americans say the “most appropriate response” is that the officer “should be fired.”
The scenario that unfolded outside of Cleveland, Ohio—where an officer kills a family pet, appearing to wantonly shoot the animal without any objective reason to fear for his own safety—plays out hundreds of times in communities across the country each year.
What should happen if a police officer shoots and kills a family pet without cause?
That’s the question Protect and Serve asked likely voters in our most recent national survey. The results show that most American voters—including a majority of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents—believe that when it comes to discipline for “a police officer who kills a family’s pet,” the “most appropriate response” is that the officer “should be fired.” Moreover, nearly four-in-five voters—79%—say either that the officer should be fired or that the officer “should be temporarily suspended without pay.”
3. Falling Trust Barometer—Six Dead Dogs In 60 Days:
He “shot my black Lab for no reason … I just hugged him, loved him, and said goodbye because I never got to,” Adam Barnes, the owner of a dog shot by a High Point, North Carolina, police officer told WXII 12, Winston Salem’s local NBC affiliate.
Olivia Land, reporting for the New York Post, provided more detail: “Hank the Labrador retriever was gunned down in his owners’ driveway on a Sunday morning,” after a High Point, N.C. police officer fired four rounds into the family pet. The officer shot the wrong dog at the wrong house after responding to a call about a German Shepherd—not a Black Labrador—who was acting aggressively on the street.
“He shot the wrong dog,” the father of the dog’s owner, who watched the shooting take place, told WXII 12, “Pow, pow, pow, pow! Just like that! … That dog was happy one second and dead the next.”
The dog’s owner says that he can’t even get the department to “acknowledge what happened” or “come out and say that they’re sorry.”
“He literally barked, and he was gunned down.” For WKRN, Shelbyville, Tennessee’s local ABC affiliate, Stephanie Langston reports on “a night of celebration [that] took a horrific turn [when] the family dog, 3-year-old Chapo, was shot four times…‘He took every bullet that that officer let out. He has every bullet inside of him still,’” the dog’s owner Chelsey Crawford told the news outlet.
In surveillance video from the family home, Crawford is heard “greeting [a Shelbyville police officer] and warning [him] of Chapo’s presence… ‘I [said], ‘Hey, hold on just a second, you know… my dog,’ and then that’s when it happened, that’s when he started shooting.” Crawford told the news station.
“To shoot like that, in front of civilians, you’re putting your own life in danger, our lives in danger, my children’s lives in danger, because of what? A bark?” Crawford told the news station that “police still haven’t reached out with an explanation of why they came to her home, an apology for the shooting, or an offer to help cover Chapo’s vet bills.”
“Waco police shoot, kill dog after going to wrong address.”
In surveillance video from the family home, Crawford is heard “greeting [a Shelbyville police officer] and warning [him] of Chapo’s presence… ‘I [said], ‘Hey, hold on just a second, you know… my dog,’ and then that’s when it happened, that’s when he started shooting.” Crawford told the news station.
“To shoot like that, in front of civilians, you’re putting your own life in danger, our lives in danger, my children’s lives in danger, because of what? A bark?” Crawford told the news station that “police still haven’t reached out with an explanation of why they came to her home, an apology for the shooting, or an offer to help cover Chapo’s vet bills.”
“Waco police shoot, kill dog after going to wrong address.”
As Catherine Wilson reports for the San Antonio Express News:
“Losing a beloved furry family member can be tough on anyone. It's even worse when that death was caused by a police officer who was sent to the wrong address. That’s exactly what happened to a family's dog in Waco on Saturday, June 3 … The dog’s owner took Finn to an emergency medical clinic where he later succumbed to his injuries.”
…
“The grieving family is devastated by his passing and a family friend has launched a GoFundMe campaign to hire a lawyer for the family. ‘I got a call from my best friend in hysterics, telling me to come to her house because the WACO POLICE DEPARTMENT came into her yard, and SHOT and KILLED her 10 year old black lab Finn,’ Tori Russell writes on the GoFundMe. ‘[Officers] have now left this once peaceful little home in complete tragedy and disarray.’”
“I just heard him whining and everybody was like, ‘Oh, [the police] shot the dog.’ Unbelievable.” For WLWT5, Cincinnati's local NBC affiliate, Jatara McGee reports on outrage from neighbors after a Cincinnati police officer shot a family’s pet dog. McGee explained that the police were responding to a report that the dog was unleashed and roaming around the neighborhood. But one neighbor who witnessed the shooting said the dog “wasn't aggressive where he was attacking anybody” and another neighbor witness told the news station that she “does not believe the officer needed to use force… ‘I don't believe he was in danger. The dog never left his yard. How could he be in danger?’”
“An officer walked into their home and shot [the family dog] multiple times for no reason…” For KFVS 12, a local CBS affiliate in Missouri, Nicki Clark reports on “a New Madrid County family [who is] mourning the loss of their pet after they say an officer walked into their home and shot him multiple times for no reason.”
A woman who lived in the home said that “she felt terror when her back door swung open and a police officer shot and killed [the] dog,” telling KFVS that “she’s not sure why the officer even showed up.” [The police department said that the city had condemned the home; and, since the needed repairs weren’t made, they were checking to see if the house was empty. It isn’t clear why officers opened the door without knocking.]
Meanwhile, a witness to the shooting told local news that “the officer should have his badge taken away.” And, the dog’s owner told KFVS 12 that the dog—named Ricky Bobby in tribute to Will Farrell’s character in the movie Talladega Nights— “didn’t have a mean bone in his body …. I’m feeling like his life doesn’t matter.”
“It’s an injustice. It’s something we are all here to support together. It’s something that we strongly believe showed poor judgment from a man with a badge.”
As KMVT, the local Idaho CBS affiliate reports, “Heyburn Police officers were dispatched for two uncontrolled loose dogs on the freeway …. Officers arrived and found two large dogs running loose on the interstate. Two citizens risked their safety to try and capture the dogs to no avail. Officers made efforts to call the dogs to them, including whistling, calling, and shouting, but the dogs were uncooperative. The dogs were not in range to use a taser … [So,] officers made the decision to shoot the dogs. Each dog was shot once and removed from the roadway.”
Shortly after police shot the two dogs, “a graphic video posted on social media shows one dog collapsing on the road, with another one lying nearby, as the officer stands near the driver's side of his vehicle.” That video sparked community outage, which, as KMVT reports, spurred a rally in front of the police station led by “a group of concerned citizens from the Heyburn area and beyond [who] want their elected officials held accountable if no action is taken over the fatal shooting of two dogs by the Heyburn Police Department.”
One of the residents at the rally drove home how distrust and fear spread through a community after police officers shoot family pets: Here’s KMVT again interviewing, “Sarah Rodriguez, [a local resident,] who showed up to show support, said she is worried about the safety of her dogs going forward. ‘It is really, really scary to think about my dogs getting out and having to worry about them getting shot. I have two of them. One of them is a big boy. He likes to jump. What is going to happen.’”