A Georgia police officer shot and killed a tiny Jack Russell Terrier that he claims threatened him during a routine probationary checkup on Monday.
The officer, Antoine Jones, is over six feet tall and weighs nearly 300 pounds. Patches, the dog he killed, weighs just 12 pounds, according to a local news channel.
Jones visited the Albany residence of Cherrie Shelton earlier this week to check on her son, who is serving probation. Upon Jones’s arrival, two-year-old Patches approached the officer and began barking. Shelton claims she told Jones that Patches was no threat, but the officer drew his weapon and shot the dog anyway.
“A little dog like that, you could stomp your feet or kick her out of the way or something, but he just shot her,” said Shelton in a statement.
After being shot, Patches fled and hid, eventually succumbing to her wounds.
According to Jones’s statement, Patches advanced toward him in a threatening manner even after receiving “multiple verbal commands to get back.”
But Shelton said this was not Jones’s first visit to the home, and the officer should have known that Patches was harmless.
Shelton buried Patches, and has plans to buy a cross to mark her grave. The dog is missed, she said.
“It’s kind of hard right now, but I guess we’ll have to adjust,” she said.
The state Department of Corrections did not immediately respond to a request for comment.