Officer Kills Dog - Wrong Address

[ElaySmith]

http://www.ksdk.com/news/article/31...-responds-to-wrong-home-shoots-homeowners-dog

Paxton and his dog, Cisco, an Australian cattle dog, were playing in his backyard on Saturday afternoon.
Paxton said he walked around to his truck to get something when he saw Officer Thomas Griffin.
According to Paxton, the officer drew his gun and pointed it at Paxton while telling him to put his hands up, but would not tell him why.
Hearing the commotion, Cisco ran to where Paxton and the officer were standing and began barking at the officer.
Dashcam video caught the verbal exchange between Paxton and Griffin which took place entirely on Paxton's property.
The officer can be heard yelling "Get your hands up" and "Get your dog" just seconds before a gunshot rings out. Paxton then pleads with the officer and asks why his dog was shot

I saw this on yahoo this morning and it really made me sad and disappointed at how some police officers handle there job. From the looks of the video when the cop arrived he already had his mind made up as to what was going on. As somebody that owns a 7 year old Chesapeake who would react much the same way if a cop arrived at my house, I would be furious and emotionally distraught after seeing my own dog killed in front of me while we are doing nothing but minding our own business. I honestly feel sorry for the man who lost his dog.

 

[Jupiter551]

My god, what an asshole. Too many people with guns who shoot first and think later. I hope the cop does jail time.

Edit: ok after watching the video I don't hope the cop does jail time, but I do hope he has a wakeup call about using force, and I do think he should be punished.

I can't wrap my head around this, blue heelers are deadly to grown men now? I can't help drawing comparisons between this and Trayvon Martin.

No offense, but some of you Americans have a really fucking paranoid idea of what it means to have life endangered.

Some examples:

Guy running at you with a knife? Endangered
Bloody nose from an unarmed 17 year old you were following? NOT endangered

Bear roaring and charging you? Endangered
Medium sized dog barking on its own property? NOT endangered, dumbass!!

 

[ElaySmith]

I definitely dont think he deserves jail time but I do believe that some sort or reprimand is in order. I also believe that officers in general need to have better training to deal with situations like this. IMO this was a situation that could of definitely been avoided if the officer would of taken the time to access the situation properly instead of jumping to conclusions.

 

[Jupiter551]

Why not use a taser? Why not be instructed on the use of, and issued with tasers? And have it drummed in that lethal force is ONLY a last resort.

This disgusts me. If he's threatened by a normal barking dog he shouldn't even be a cop, and if he shoots it dead he DEFINITELY shouldn't be a cop.

 

[SoTxBob]

Sad indeed.. Elay, being from the south, I'm sure you're aware of some of the cops and the "Bubba got a badge" mentality. Sadly, I think this was one of those instances. In the last 10-15 years or so, Austin cop quality has indeed declined when it comes to "mental ability". Most definitely he needs a reprimand and suspension. I'd go a step further and have some reeducation for evaluating threat in situations. Most likely tho, no more will be said of the incident and it will show the discharge as "justified for self defense".

Jup, It seems your focus on the Tray thing has really affected you and how you see anything involving firearms. These 2 instances aren't even close. While I won't even start on the other one, in this instance it was indeed a "highly trained officer of the law" that clearly fucked up and not some idiot neighborhood watch wannabe so don't even drag that shit to this thread.... apples n oranges my friend...

 

[LaceyRoyce]

THIS is why I would NEVER let my animal control officers carry anything more than a Tazer. THIS IS WHY.

alkjflksjdkl


That poor man.

(and yes a blue heeler can be deadly to a grown man... they have a fairly big bite. I've seen it. They can go for a leg - bring the guy down then go for the neck.)

 

[Paulie Walnuts]

Chop off his dominant hand and make him pay 1mil in restitution.

Yes I'm having a bad day.
:lol:

 

[Bocefish]

Very sad indeed. LEOs don't know what kind of messed up situation they're walking into half the time and he had a split second to decide. Tasing animals can be difficult, you have to get both probes in their body for it to be effective or you'll just piss them off more.

On another sad but heart warming note...

 

[LaceyRoyce]

Very sad indeed. LEOs don't know what kind of messed up situation they're walking into half the time and he had a split second to decide. Tasing animals can be difficult, you have to get both probes in their body for it to be effective or you'll just piss them off more.

On another sad but heart warming note...

I never found it difficult.. I never did it from a great distance tho either. I was always right up on the dog.

 

[Mirra]

Unless they snipped the tape a bit for time, it didn't sound like there was nearly enough time between "Get your dog" and *bang* to me. I'm also a little inclined to wonder if quite so much "forceful, authoritative" voice was needed by the cop when he first approached the man before the dog was even in the picture. Maybe I'm wrong on that though. Otherwise it's pretty much a crappy situation. The LEO doesn't know what exactly he might be getting in to when he steps out of his vehicle, the owner doesn't even know why there's a police officer in front of his house that's yelling at him, and the dog just hears raised voices in the direction his master went and is like "I should go check that out!"

 

[Nordling]

It's not clear from the video what exactly happened. Was the dog charging the officer or did he simply run to the scene and bark? Dogs bark...a lot. Before we were married, and the first time I went to her house, her border collie/Australian shepherd mix "threatened me" by running around and barking. She never came within ten feet of me and though cautious because one never knows what a strange dog will do, I would not have shot her if I had been armed. Of course I wasn't demanding that my gf raise her arms either.

 

[Jupiter551]

You can hear the pain in the poor guy's voice, and it sounded like the cop felt bad too, but I really doubt the dog was acting aggressively People who can't tell the difference between aggression and enthusiasm in pets shouldn't be authorized to shoot them.

I dunno how many times I've gone to someone's house for the first time and their dog has been all over me, either barking or running and jumping up on me - I can't say I understand why a cop would shoot a barking dog like that, because I don't.

 

[Rose]

What I don't understand is why didn't the cop just back up slowly and get back in his car?... Common sense and all that good stuff.

 

[SoTxBob]

What I don't understand is why didn't the cop just back up slowly and get back in his car?... Common sense and all that good stuff.

Simple, the cop was answering a call. I believe it was a domestic violence call if I heard it right. Cops aren't trained to back off until after their edicts have been complied with.

 

[Rose]

What I don't understand is why didn't the cop just back up slowly and get back in his car?... Common sense and all that good stuff.

Simple, the cop was answering a call. I believe it was a domestic violence call if I heard it right. Cops aren't trained to back off until after their edicts have been complied with.

Yea but around here I've seen cops back up and sit in their cars until they get back up if they feel threatened. I guess I just don't understand.

 

[Jupiter551]

Anyone else would just explain their business to the owner and wait for him to tell the dog to shut up. Pretty much because he was a cop, and had a gun, he shot the dog.

The rest of us manage to go through life without shooting things that seem angry at us, but we're defending the cop not having to resort to the reasonable tactics anyone else would use..

 

[Nordling]

Anyone else would just explain their business to the owner and wait for him to tell the dog to shut up. Pretty much because he was a cop, and had a gun, he shot the dog.

The rest of us manage to go through life without shooting things that seem angry at us, but we're defending the cop not having to resort to the reasonable tactics anyone else would use..

Yes, plus is it normal when checking out a triplex to pull a gun on the first guy you see and tell him "hands up?"

 

[EmelieSky]

FFS, he starts screaming at him to raise his hands, then get his dog, and then he shoots it? In just seconds? WTF?

The poor guy doesn't even have a chance to take a breath to have air enough to tell the dog to back of.

And don't they have pepper spray in the us?

 

[Mirra]

Anyone else would just explain their business to the owner and wait for him to tell the dog to shut up. Pretty much because he was a cop, and had a gun, he shot the dog.

The rest of us manage to go through life without shooting things that seem angry at us, but we're defending the cop not having to resort to the reasonable tactics anyone else would use..

As I mentioned above, I question a few things in regards to the situation and specifically how the police officer handled it... but I would indeed defend them to an extent as well because their job puts them in precarious situations that could get dangerous in a hurry more frequently than the average job does. They do have to have their guard up in a lot of these situations.

But as I said before, if the timing of things on the tape is accurate, he sounds like he would have failed utterly at deescalating the domestic dispute he was actually sent to investigate if he had acted similarly hostile from the get go. In my opinion, he needs a couple months behind a desk and some kind of training (or retraining) on identifying severity of threats (pulling the gun on the man immediately and then shooting the dog) and use of deadly force. That's just my :twocents-02cents: though.

 

[ElaySmith]

From the sound of the video if everything played out as is and there was nothing cut or edited I doubt the guy actually felt threatened for his life. It seems to me that he came into a situation with his mind already made up that he was going to find something wrong and he was coming there to assert his authority over the situation and IMO needed to feel like the "big man on campus". He did nothing to let the guy know he was there, what he was coming for, that a call had been made to come to his residence or anything else to let the poor victim be aware of any possible ongoing situation.

Devils Advocate- We do have to keep in mind that we can not see the actual altercation between cop, owner and dog. Is it possible that the man came around his house holding something that could of been misconstrued as a weapon? Since my dog is a retriever I often play with her with a dummy launcher (pic below) and I can only assume if I cop showed up at my house (for a domestic dispute) and a male walks around the corner of the house holding one of these guns with a dog barking aggressively that yes he may feel threatened at that point may possibly need to take action.

I am not sure that I feel like the officer should lose his job, it would definitely depend on how he has reacted to other situations in the past and if he has a record of violence and misuse of his authority. He should definitely be reprimanded, maybe put behind a desk and made to attend some more educational classes on how to handle situations properly.

 

[Jupiter551]

Yeah, need to remember if this guy (cop or not) came onto your land, told you to put your hands up, your dog started barking and within a few seconds shot it dead on your front lawn...like seriously, that is just so incredibly fucked up.

 

[Nordling]

I'm just glad the GUY wasn't barking.

 

[Bocefish]

Some people have an irrational fear of dogs to begin with. It sure sounds like Cisco was just being a dog, barking at an intruder. I wonder what compensation, if any, the PD will offer the guy.

 

[Harvrath]

http://www.newser.com/story/34458/cops-shoot-mayors-dogs-in-bad-drug-bust.html

Stories like these are why I'm a Libertarian and advocate for small, limited government.

 

[lexmark402003]

The cop started shooting just a couple of seconds after you first here the dog bark. I often think they give these clowns a gun and a badge, and they think it gives them a right to shoot with no consequences.

There is also a FB page: http://www.facebook.com/JusticeForCisco