Family wants Wheeling police officer fired after dog shooting

WHEELING, W.Va. – More than two weeks after a police officer shot and killed its dog, a family remains outraged.

While police continue to investigate exactly what happened on a street in East Wheeling a few weeks ago, where a German Shepherd was shot and killed by a Wheeling police officer, protestors said they won't stop making a stand for justice until they see that officer removed from his position.

“We have over 3,000 signatures that have signed the petition for Officer (Kyle) Mull to be removed from the police department,” protester Tisha Terry said.

As more people visit change.org to sign that petition for Shadow, the family that owned the German Shepherd protested in front of the City County Building holding up signs Monday.

The dog was allegedly deemed vicious by the city in April 2013, but people who knew the dog say he was harmless.

The dog was shot and killed when police said they were flagged down by a person who reported they were being chased in an aggressive manner by the dog. The owners claim their dog was never aggressive.

“Part of my family is laying on the ground with two bullets in his head for no reason,” dog owner Donna Terry said. “That dog has never bit anybody. It was 5 years old. I've trained German Shepherds for 30 years."

The police officer who shot the dog also has protestors questioning his Twitter updates, pointing out to one that said, “i really wish it wasn’t frowned upon to kill your dog.”

Wheeling Police Department officials said they are thoroughly investigating the incident in a process they call the Officer of Professional Standards Review

“We take it seriously,” Wheeling Police Department Chief Shawn Schwertfeger said. “We hope to learn from incidents like this so I'm just waiting to see what the final outcome is."

In the meantime, police said their investigation is almost complete. We’ll be sure to bring you the latest as this story continues to unfold.

Woman Files Complaint After Police Shoot And Kill Dog

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A 21-year-old recent Ohio State graduate filed a complaint against Columbus Police. She says Columbus Police wrongfully shot and killed her Labrador pit-bull mix.  It's a dog she considered part of the family.

Police claim they acted in self-defense as they were trying to execute an arrest warrant against her boyfriend for domestic violence.

A charge, she says she now wishes she could wipe away because when police moved in, her dog, Nala, became an unintended target.

"When I came to the door, I cracked it like this and looked out, then Nala came beside me and stuck her nose out here," said victim, Cartier Townsend.

"They said put your dog away. I will shoot your dog. Those two statements. That is all that they said to me," said Townsend.

A spokesperson for Columbus police tells 10TV the officers, at the time, told her to secure the dog.

"I tried to put her away and even when she ran out of her cage, I told them, don't shoot her. She's not going to try to bite you guys," said Townsend.

Police say, after they repeatedly told her to close the cage, Townsend jumped in the officer's way and the dog ran toward them growling.

The police spokesperson says the officers felt threatened, so they first deployed a taser and then fired with a gun.

"There's no reason she should be in a body bag right now. There's no reason she shouldn't be out there playing outside," said Townsend.

Neighbors say the commotion woke them up.

"One of them said that he was going to kill that ***** dog," said neighbor, Jim McNutt.

"Didn't hear any barking or any yelling from the inside, just the yelling of the cops. The male voices saying, 'We're going to break down your f'n door. Control your f'n dog,'" said neighbor, Katie Knotts.

Concerning statements, to the recent OSU grad, who so badly wishes she had her dog back.

"None of this would have happened if they just let me put her away," said Cartier. "There was nothing I could do. There was nothing I could do to help her."

Police ended up arrested her boyfriend early that morning. 

There is an internal review of the officer, who fired the gun, as is protocol within the department anytime an officer fires a gun. There is also a review after Townsend filed her complaint.

Anderson family upset after police shoot, kill pet dog

By Diana Watson

ANDERSON, SC (FOX Carolina) -

An Anderson family is angry after the death of their pit bull. The dog, named Cream, was shot and killed by Anderson police, who arrived at their home to investigate a stolen cell phone.

Police tell FOX Carolina they were forced to shoot the dog to protect themselves.

Adrien Best, who had two adults, three teens and three young children at her home Monday evening on East Franklin Street, said she heard the shots. She was inside the house when one of her sons told her police were pulling up the driveway.

She said by the time she reached the front door, she heard two shots fired. She said she was immediately worried about her children playing outside. Then she realized one of her family's dogs had been shot by officers.

"I tried to gather the kids up to put them in the house because apparently you're not safe outside with officers where we should be because they're protecting and serve," Best said. "If you show up with a gun and you're irate, then you're not protecting me so I did not feel safe."

Within moments, she found out why police were at her house. They were investigating a cell phone stolen from T.L. Hanna High School. The report was initiated by the school's resource officer, who is an Anderson County deputy.

The phone had been tracked by GPS to Best's house and was being carried by a friend of her son's, who told her he had found it at school. The school resource officer called for back-up from Anderson police because the East Franklin Street is in the city. A spokesman for the Anderson County Sheriff's Office said the resource officer was not on scene yet when the dog was shot.

FOX Carolina called the Anderson Police Department, who provided an incident report of the dog shooting. It was written by Officer Joseph Chapman.

Part of the report said, "A brown and white large dog charged myself and Captain Aman. Officers did draw duty issue weapons and felt in fear that the dog was going to attack, due to the threatening manner it was coming at officers. Captain Aman did shoot the dog with one shot, at which time the dog went into some bushes and was not a threat."

But the family gave a different story, calling their dog a gentle giant. Adrian Gaines, one of Best's sons, was in the driveway when he saw officers arrive and witnessed the shooting.

"The dog didn't bark, show any teeth, it didn't rush them, didn't growl or anything," Gaines said. "Once he shot him the first time, I'm sure he was scared and that's how he got up in the bushes and he ran up in the bushes and that's when you shoot him again. He's in the bushes bleeding already and you shoot him again."

The shooting of the dog was witnessed by four children, including a 13-year-old named Jeremiah. He cried for hours after the dog was killed. He and others in the family want to know why this happened.

"He was a good dog," Jeremiah said. "He didn't deserve to die. They shouldn't have shot him. There was no point to it."

Now, the family plans to file a formal complaint with Anderson police.

In the meantime, the department indicates they did what they had to do to make sure their officers were safe. They said because the dog was not in a fence or tethered, there was no option.

For Jeremiah, that's not good enough, saying, "Something needs to happen. You can't just do that and get away with it."

Woman Files Complaint After Police Shoot And Kill Dog

By Danielle Elias

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A 21-year-old recent Ohio State graduate filed a complaint against Columbus Police. She says Columbus Police wrongfully shot and killed her Labrador pit-bull mix.  It's a dog she considered part of the family.

Police claim they acted in self-defense as they were trying to execute an arrest warrant against her boyfriend for domestic violence.

A charge, she says she now wishes she could wipe away because when police moved in, her dog, Nala, became an unintended target.

"When I came to the door, I cracked it like this and looked out, then Nala came beside me and stuck her nose out here," said victim, Cartier Townsend.

"They said put your dog away. I will shoot your dog. Those two statements. That is all that they said to me," said Townsend.

A spokesperson for Columbus police tells 10TV the officers, at the time, told her to secure the dog.

"I tried to put her away and even when she ran out of her cage, I told them, don't shoot her. She's not going to try to bite you guys," said Townsend.

Police say, after they repeatedly told her to close the cage, Townsend jumped in the officer's way and the dog ran toward them growling.

The police spokesperson says the officers felt threatened, so they first deployed a taser and then fired with a gun.

"There's no reason she should be in a body bag right now. There's no reason she shouldn't be out there playing outside," said Townsend.

Neighbors say the commotion woke them up.

"One of them said that he was going to kill that ***** dog," said neighbor, Jim McNutt.

"Didn't hear any barking or any yelling from the inside, just the yelling of the cops. The male voices saying, 'We're going to break down your f'n door. Control your f'n dog,'" said neighbor, Katie Knotts.

Concerning statements, to the recent OSU grad, who so badly wishes she had her dog back.

"None of this would have happened if they just let me put her away," said Cartier. "There was nothing I could do. There was nothing I could do to help her."

Police ended up arrested her boyfriend early that morning. 

There is an internal review of the officer, who fired the gun, as is protocol within the department anytime an officer fires a gun. There is also a review after Townsend filed her complaint.

Woman sues for $1.35 million after off-duty cop fatally shoots her puppy

 by Brent McCluskey

A Chicago woman has filed a lawsuit seeking $1.35 million in damages nearly a year after an off-duty police officer fatally shot her puppy.

On March 15, 2013, Samantha Maglaya’s 5-year-old daughter was in their front yard playing with Maximus, their 4-month-old pitbull, when an off-duty police officer shot the dog eight times in the chest, killing it, the NBC affiliate reports.

The officer claimed the dog was aggressively charging towards his 5-year-old son, but Maglaya says that never happened and believes her dog’s death was a conspiracy. She filed a 22-count lawsuit against the city, as well as several law enforcement officers.

The officer who shot Maximus said he was just protecting his son, and if the dog had been properly leashed, the whole situation could have been avoided.

“It’s supposed to be on a leash. If that dog is on a leash, this never happens,” the officer said. “[My son] wanted to ride his bike. So he’s riding down the sidewalk. As I’m walking down the street the dog comes out of the gangway charging at him.”

But Magaya’s lawsuit paints a darker picture and accuses the officer of lying about the incident. She claims Maximus never chased a child on a bike, because the officer’s child wasn’t there in the first place. She says Maximus was running around their front yard, wagging his tail, when the officer opened fire not more than 10 feet away from her daughter.

Magaya believes the officer shot Maximus because of her race and because he didn’t want a pitbull in the neighborhood, and said two other officers who live on her block lied on the officer’s behalf.

The 22-count lawsuit against Chicago and the officer involved in the shooting and those in the subsequent cover up includes a slew of charges, including excessive force, aggravated cruelty to animals, hate crimes against Maglaya and her daughter, and trespassing, among others.

She is seeking a total of $1.35 million in damages.

Another Day, Another Cop Shoots a Dog

It's time to teach the police some new tricks.

A. Barton Hinkle |

A police officer chasing a suspect entered Bianca Alakson's fenced-in backyard the other day. When her 10-month-old Labrador-mix puppy ran toward the Redford Township, Ohio, officer, he shot the dog twice, killing it. Alakson's boyfriend, Ryan Showalter, ran outside and demanded to know why. He was arrested for interfering with an investigation.

"I asked him why," Showalter said. "And he said, 'Because he was in our way.' I was breaking down hysterically in the back seat of the cop car, crying. I didn't know what to do."

This wasn't long after Cole Middleton, a resident of Raines County, Texas, called the police to report that his house had been burgled. When an officer arrived Middleton's dog started barking. According to news reports, "the deputy claimed the dog was about to bite him and shot the dog to defend himself. … Middleton says the dog was shot in the head. He begged the deputy to finish off his cowdog named Candy since the dog was suffering."

"I was so upset," Middleton told KLTV-7 News. "I went over there to her and she was still alive and I begged and pleaded with him to please shoot her again because I don't have any firearms. They got stolen. He went and got in his vehicle and backed out of my driveway.

"And then I had to do the unthinkable. … I had to kill my dog with my bare hands and put her out of her suffering, praying for this to be over with," Middleton said.

Those are just two of many cases in which police officers have killed family pets recently and without any apparent justification. There have been countless others. Police entered a back yard in Mobile, Alabama, encountered a dog, and shot it. A Tehachapi, California, officer saw a dog run toward him while he was performing routine code enforcement checks. "He just pulled out his gun and boom, boom, boom," reported a witness. An officer responding to a complaint about a moving van in the street in Columbus, Ohio, shot a dog nine times after it growled at him. And in Filer, Idaho, an officer shot a dog whose owner was throwing his 9-year-old son a birthday party. You can watch the dash-cam video (warning: strong content and language) by Googling "officer shoots dog at boy’s birthday party."

In most such cases, what happens afterward is: nothing. The police department says it will investigate the shooting, and then the incident disappears into a circular file or a black hole. Not always: The Texas officer who shot Middleton's dog was fired. But the police department in Filer decided officer Tarek Hassani was justified in using deadly force against a family pet.

Fortunately, some police departments have begun training officers in how to read animal behavior. Most dogs that feel threatened don't run toward the perceived threat, for instance—they run away. "An approaching dog is almost always friendly," according to a Justice Department report, "The Problem of Dog-Related Incidents and Encounters." Here in Virginia some departments do a better job than others. But the commonwealth has not passed a law requiring such training, as Colorado has.

Meanwhile, public pressure to protect dogs is mounting. Filer residents were so upset by its department's decision that some launched a recall effort to unseat the mayor and the entire city council. A Kickstarter campaign has raised more than $45,000 for the documentary Puppycide.

"When we first learned about puppycide," the filmmakers write, "we assumed that these must be cases of police responding to threats on their lives from dogs trained to attack by criminal owners. That couldn't be further from the truth. We found scores of videos and news stories about dogs who were laying down, tails wagging, even running away but still shot by officers who used lethal force as their first and only response."

Nobody wants to see police officers—already underpaid and underappreciated—get hurt in the line of duty. What people object to is the gratuitous slaughter of pets that pose no threat. Officers couldn't shoot children with such impunity, and many pet owners love their animals almost as much as their kids.

That shouldn't be surprising. A special bond between people and dogs has developed over thousands of years of domestication.

Recent work by Hungarian researchers has shown that dogs can read emotion in human voices and, as The Washington Post reported the other day, "other studies have revealed that dogs yawn when they see humans yawning and that they nuzzle and lick people who are crying; scientists consider both behaviors displays of empathy, a rarely documented trait in the animal kingdom."

If dogs can read other species' behavior signals and show empathy toward them, then surely police officers should be able to as well.

Esther Cepeda: Dogs and the warrior cops

If Radley Balko is right, it may be the dog lovers of America who touched off a movement to rein in the strong-arm tactics that have accompanied the militarization of the country's police forces.

By Esther Cepeda

If Radley Balko is right, it may be the dog lovers of America who touched off a movement to rein in the strong-arm tactics that have accompanied the militarization of the country’s police forces.

Balko, who writes The Washington Post’s “The Watch” blog on criminal justice issues, says that police these days too frequently shoot people’s pets when making a raid, and people are becoming fed up.

I recently read Balko’s book, “Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces,” after spending some time in a firearms class. In that class was a retired policeman who firmly subscribed to the “us vs. them” mentality Balko so vividly illustrates.

Starting with a history of law enforcement, Balko follows its tenuous flirtation with the norms and practices of the armed forces to today’s proliferation of S.W.A.T.-like local police departments. He provides a painful history of the progression from President Richard Nixon’s War on Drugs through the decades-long erosion of private citizens’ rights to have their homes treated as sanctuary from violence to the all-too-common “collateral damage” incidents that dot our news feeds.

No one, and no political party, is spared from a scathing critique of the wisdom of soldiering-up local police officers and making violent, highly militarized raids everyday occurrences. Notably, Balko’s sources are less often the innocent victims of botched raids, accidental shootings, wrong-address nighttime blitzes and flash-bomb takedowns — or their advocates — though their stories come through clearly.

Mostly, the voices of those speaking out about the dangers of invade-and-conquer law enforcement are of professionals in the field who either carried out militarization programs themselves or tried, in vain, to keep brute force — and its accompanying mindset — from encroaching on their beloved profession.

Balko provides seemingly endless examples of state-sanctioned violence and paramilitary-style policing even as he fairly portrays the danger that law enforcement officials have to deal with in their demanding jobs. It cannot be said enough that “Rise of the Warrior Cop” is in no way a partisan, overly emotional or pacifist anti-police screed — but learning how calloused we’ve all become to this type of enforcement stopped me cold.

Balko cites anecdotal evidence among his network of law enforcement researchers and educators showing that too often people calmly accept that unwarranted violations of privacy and violent tactics are appropriate for “bad guys,” murderers and drug dealers, even their wives and children. But they get very angry when they hear about pets being harmed and routinely killed.

“At first, that may seem to indicate that people callously value the lives of pets more than the lives of people,” Balko writes. “But the fact that killing the dog during these raids has become nearly routine in many police agencies demonstrates just how casually those agencies have come to accept drug war collateral damage. When I started logging cop-shoots-dog incidents on my blog (under the probably sensational term ‘puppycide’), people began sending me new stories as they happened. Cops are now shooting dogs at the slightest provocation. As of this writing, I’m sent accounts of a few incidents each week.”

The public outcry about pets as collateral damage has actually gotten a handful of police departments to mandate training, Balko writes. He quotes Russ Jones, a former narcotics officer with the San Jose Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Agency: “I don’t understand it at all. I guess somewhere along the line a cop shot a dog under questionable circumstances and got away with it. Word got out, and now it seems like some cops are just looking for reasons to take a shot at a dog. Maybe it just comes down to that — we can get away with it, therefore we do it.”

If Balko gets one point across, it’s that the days of law enforcement getting away with strong-arm and often deadly tactics in the name of maintaining safety and order are coming to an end.

The proliferation of mobile phones with cameras, video that can be remotely streamed directly to the Internet and the instantaneous sharing of both through social media are making it so that evidence of law enforcement overreach can be preserved as proof.

But first, we have to be aware that these instances of overly harsh tactics affect innocent, law-abiding citizens — not just the canine kind — and we can no longer afford to accept our civil rights getting so blithely trampled.

Cop camera turned off during violent arrest

By Frank Fernandez

A Daytona Beach police officer has resigned following an incident in which his body camera did not record an entire confrontation, which included another officer sticking a flashlight into a woman’s mouth, a report states.

Officer Justin Ranum resigned July 23 while under investigation for the incomplete body camera video. And according to a report, Officer Matthew Booth was fired Jan. 8, partly because he stuck a metal flashlight in a woman’s mouth to keep it open.

What Booth described as “the flashlight technique” is not an approved tactic by the Daytona Beach Police Department, according to a report finding that Booth violated department directives. The report also found that Booth violated directives when he stuck his fingers in Christine Chippewa’s mouth to try and retrieve drugs he believed she had.

Police Chief Mike Chitwood said Ranum’s body camera was sent to Taser to check why it did not record the entire encounter and Ranum was given another body camera. Then Chitwood said there was a second incident in which Ranum’s body camera was not running.

The officer resigned before the camera audit was completed. But the audit came back that the camera did not film the entire arrest because it was turned off manually, a policy violation, Chitwood said.

“If you follow the policy, we have no problems whatsoever,” Chitwood said. “It’s when officers deviate from the policy that we have a problem. And the policy is there to protect the officer and protect the community. It’s really simple. Nobody likes change, but change is here.”

It was not the first time Ranum had been in trouble. In December 2010, Ranum and another officer were fired after they were acquitted of criminal mischief charges. The two were arrested Sept. 2, 2010, nearly a month after banging on a woman’s trailer hoping to flush out a suspect. Records indicate the trailer sustained $1,700 worth of damage. The judge in the case said prosecutors failed to show the two officers damaged the trailer with intent and malice. Ranum was rehired about a year later.

Booth violated several policies during Chippewa’s arrest on about 3:30 a.m. on June 13, 2013, near the boat ramps on the eastern span of the Seabreeze Bridge. Booth also violated directives by striking Chippewa in the head, either by kicking her or with a knee strike. It was unclear which he did because at different times Booth claimed to have done one or the other, leading to a finding that he violated a directive having to do with making a false report.

Booth told internal affairs investigators that he stuck his metal flashlight into Chippewa’s mouth because Ranum said she was trying to swallow illegal narcotics, the report states.

After using the flashlight, Booth “forced his fingers against the outside of Chippewa’s cheeks” as he tried to get the alleged narcotics, the report said. That’s another practice not approved by the department unless it is used to save someone’s life, which Booth admitted was not the circumstance, the report states.

Booth said he did not see any signs that Chippewa was having medical problems from the alleged overdose and did not call paramedics.

Booth said he kicked Chippewa in the head because she bit him hard through her cheeks. Booth then stuck his fingers inside her mouth, the report states.

Chippewa, 37, was charged with tampering with physical evidence and obstructing an officer without violence. No drugs were found on Chippewa and she did not suffer any ill effects that would have indicated she swallowed drugs.

The State Attorney’s Office declined to file charges.

Chippewa has retained attorney Jonathan Rotstein, who has sent a notice of claim to the city, the first step before any lawsuit would be filed.

Chippewa has prior convictions from 2010 cases of possession of schedule IV substance and possession of drug paraphernalia. She also has prior convictions from 2009 cases of introduction of contraband into a correctional facility and resisting an officer without violence.

Cop shoots, kills dog while chasing suspect through backyard

A Redford Township police officer is being accused of killing a 10-month-old lab/pit bull mix. The officer was chasing a suspect through a backyard when the officer claims the young puppy charged at him. He claimed he fired two shots because he feared for his life. When the dog's owner came out to demand answers police arrested him and charged with interfering with a police investigation.

Police shoot Trenton family's dog 3 times, killing Poodie

By David Foster,

TRENTON — Oweeta Derry received a call from a neighbor telling her that the family’s Cane Corso was outside of her gate in the backyard chasing a cat.

What happened next shocked her.

“When I got there, a cop said they shot her,” Derry said Wednesday afternoon, a day after Poodie was killed.

“They shot her once in the chest because a police officer said she jumped at him,” Derry said of the 1-year-old dog.

“But why would you then shoot her again twice again in the back?” she questioned. “What was the purpose of that? You had already hit her in the chest.”

A New Jersey State Police trooper and a member of the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office were executing an arrest warrant at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday in an alleyway on the first block of West End Avenue near Derry’s home when Poodie appeared, according NJSP Capt. Stephen Jones.

“This very large dog ran out from behind from a backyard area where there was a fence that wasn’t secured,” Jones said Wednesday. “It ran out of the yard of an abandoned property and charged at the trooper and officer. They both discharged rounds striking the dog and the dog ran away.”

The officers later found the dog dead in the rear parking lot of Cadwalader Elementary School.

“It’s very sad when this type of thing has to happen,” Jones said. “It unfortunately comes down to protecting life and limb there when you’re dealing with a large aggressive animal.”

But Derry said Poodie was anything but aggressive.

“She’s a big baby,” said Derry, who just tied the knot last Monday. “Of course she’s a big dog, but she was a really sweet, humble-type dog. She was very friendly and playful.”

Derry’s husband, Dwayne, said cops came onto the scene with their guns drawn.

“Why are they going in the back with their guns drawn from the beginning?” he questioned. “What is your purpose of going in the back of someone’s house with your gun drawn?”

Dwayne Derry said they could have ordered Poodie to stop.

“She likes to play,” he said. “When she sees people, she jumps up wanting to play because she’s a playful dog, but shooting her three times was unnecessary.”

The Derrys suggested cops could have pepper-strayed Poodie or shot in the air.

“They claimed she came at him, but even if that’s the case, he could have shot in the air or shot her in the leg,” Oweeda Derry said. “Why shoot her in her chest and shoot her twice times in the back?”

Describing proper procedure, Jones explained when a dog is charging, they often move fast.

“If a situation is occurring and shots are fired within a second, it’s not a matter of knowing that you hit a dog and that’s the end of it,” he said. “You got to stop the threat.”

Jones ruled out other possible uses of force against the animal. The captain said neither officer was carrying a Taser, but it wouldn’t have mattered anyway.

“That’s generally not too effective on a charging animal,” Jones saidPepper spray is clearly not effective on most dogs.”

In the end, Jones said situations like this are a matter of officer safety.

“If they’re there legally serving a warrant on the premises and somebody has a dog that is not controlled, it might be a situation where it’s just simply a matter of officer safety,” he said.

As of Wednesday night, the Derrys said they were still awaiting a call back from the state trooper on the scene to obtain a police report

Police shoot dog in yard during search

Witnesses say 12-year-old male pitbull inside fenced yard was not lunging, growling or barking.

Police shot a dog Tuesday in North Toledo while executing a search warrant with the SWAT team.

People at the scene said officers shot Schrecongost’s 12-year-old male pitbull that had been inside the fenced yard when police arrived.

Police allegedly shot the dog — which onlookers said was not lunging, growling, or barking — from the sidewalk in front of the house before entering the gate.

Police officials could not be reached for comment later Tuesday, but department policy states, “Officers may use a firearm to destroy a dangerous animal that poses an immediate threat to the officer or others.”

The dog did not die on the scene, but people there said it was shot twice with a shotgun and suffered significant jaw and shoulder injuries. The dog was taken to a veterinary hospital to be euthanized and was then buried in the yard with neighbors’ help.

Cop Who Killed Beloved Dog Indicted Could Face Jail Time After Grand Jury Indictment

By Dominic Kelly

Last month, Opposing Views told you about Jerrod Dooley, the Texas cop who fatally shot a dog while responding to a home invasion. Now, a grand jury has indicted the former sheriff’s deputy on an animal cruelty charge that could land him in jail.

Dooley, a 32-year-old Rains County officer, was immediately fired from the department following the incident. Cole Middleton, owner of the beloved dog named Candy, took to social media to share his story after his dog was killed. Middleton says that he called the police to report that his home had been broken into and items had been stolen, but when Dooley arrived, the officer fired shots through the back of Candy’s head, going through her eyes.

“I was so upset,” said Middleton. “I went over there to her and she was still alive and I begged and pleaded with him to please shoot her again because I don’t have any firearms. They got stolen. He went and got in his vehicle and backed out of my driveway. And then I had to do the unthinkable, the otherwise unthinkable. I had to kill my dog with my bare hands and put her out of her suffering, praying for this to be over with.”

From the start, Dooley claimed that the dog had charged towards him and that he was left with no choice but to shoot it, but a veterinarian confirmed that the dog was shot behind its head, so she had to have had her back turned to him when the shots were fired.

Dooley was promptly fired and within just a couple of weeks, a grand jury indicted him on animal cruelty charges that could land him in jail. His attorney Pete Schulte says that the charges are too harsh and they are hoping to be able to provide a clear vision of what happened on the day of the incident once they are in court.

"This is clearly a political knee jerk reaction by the DA in Rains County and there’s no chance that this case will stand up in court," said Schulte. "It’s a legal impossibility because he was acting within the scope of his employment as a public servant. We look forward to our day in court. They indicted him within two weeks. That never happens.”

Dooley insists that he did what he had to do and says that the attention this story has received has been overwhelming.

“I can’t go to the grocery store without being recognized, pointed at, laughed at," said Dooley. "Can't pay my water bill without hearing my name, saying 'There's the sorry cop that killed the dog.’”