A traffic stop in
Aurora ended with a family’s dog being shot and killed by a police officer.
“It is unfortunate
the way it turned out,” Aurora Police Chief Seth Riewaldt said.
On July 5 at about 5
p.m., Riewaldt said Officer Christopher Reiter followed a 53-year-old Aurora
woman’s vehicle to her East Garfield Road driveway after receiving a report of
a possible impaired driver. The woman and her dog were in the vehicle.
“The dog was acting
in a very aggressive manner,” Riewaldt said. “Officer Reiter was shouting to
the driver to roll up the windows. She was either unable to or unwilling to do
so.
“The dog came out of
the window, and the officer retreated around the front of the car. The dog kept
charging, and he fired.”
Riewaldt said Reiter
fired one shot. “I know Officer Reiter wishes he didn’t have to do it,”
Riewaldt said. “I support him. He is an experienced officer.”
A police report has
not yet been filed, police said. The dog, Pele, 6, was a male Australian
shepherd mix and weighed about 50 pounds.
Aurora resident Thomi
West, owner of the dog, said Reiter never yelled to close the windows until she
had exited the vehicle.
West said her dog
jumped out the rear driver’s side passenger window. She said she cannot
understand why her dog was shot.
“That is so
unfathomable to me,” she said. “We used to have a joke that if a burglar came
into the house, Pele would lick him to death. He wasn’t a mean dog.”
Riewaldt said Reiter
and West were the only two people present when the dog was killed.
No charges had been
filed against West, but Riewaldt said charges might be forthcoming.
“We are reviewing
what the appropriate charges would be,” he said.
Aurora resident
Jennifer West, who is Thomi West’s daughter-in-law, said the family is in shock
after the dog’s death.
“He was the sweetest
dog,” she said. “My 4-year-old son, Jordan, grew up with this dog. It’s
pathetic. They shot an innocent dog in the face.”
Reiter was
unavailable for comment.
The police chief said
he empathizes with the family.
“I love dogs. I have
had dogs for years and years,” Riewaldt said. “But I would not want to be
bitten by a dog. The use of force has to be reasonable and necessary. I believe
it was both reasonable and necessary.
“This is being
characterized as killing an innocent dog, but it was a pretty good-sized dog
that could certainly damage a person,” he added.
“Hypothetically,”
Riewaldt said officers may choose to instead kick a dog in the mouth, or Taser
or pepper spray the animal.
“But if a Taser or
pepper spray misses, it would be ineffective,” he said.
Riewaldt said dogs
being shot by police are “extremely rare. I don’t remember anybody in the
police department here ever having to do that.”