# Officer shoots restrained pit bull and gets charged



## Tank_N_Moose (Jul 23, 2011)

The original story is here :Video of pit bull shooting draws wrath

The dog was staying with a sitter, and escaped the garage. Neighbor called the cops and AC for a strange dog. AC restrained the dog only for the officer to shoot it five times while on the catch pole. He also managed to his his own car with a stray bullet.

Commerce City officer faces felony charge for shooting dog - The Denver Post

The city isn't taking too lightly to the officers actions which were caught on tape and he is now facing charges. Hopefully this is a big step in stopping animal cruelty.


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## wink-_-wink (Aug 12, 2012)

you know the sad thing is that had this not been caught on tape and trended on social media, this cop would have gotten away with it. This really pisses me off because it gives LEO's a bad name! This also bothers me. If a person is restrained via handcuffs, then you as a LEO are not authorized ANY force against them. In this mean taser, or OC spray. There are other way to handle stuff. This should be no different. The AC officer had the dog on the pole making him restrained. NO force should have been used, let alone the taser AND 5 shots.... And they said it was for the safety of the community and officers on scene yet they questions 15 witnesses who could have all been hit by that bullet ricochet! Thanks for sharing, I hope justice is served!


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## llombardo (Dec 11, 2011)

This...I'm happy to read Maybe it will take only one officer losing their job to prevent other stuff like this. I believe the animal control person was horrified at what the officer did and played a part in letting officials know this.


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## Mrs.K (Jul 14, 2009)

Good! Let that be a lesson for any trigger happy cop that shoots first and thinks later. 

@llombardo, you could clearly see that the AC Officer was upset. However, I am not sure if the Officer would have been charged had there not been proof in form of a video. They were so quick in releasing a statement that the Officer acted out of fear, I doubt anything had been done at all. 
Makes you wonder how many dogs have unecessarily been shot in the name of "I feared for my life and the safety of our community."


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## Questforfire (Apr 18, 2012)

Difficult video to watch  The PB is clearly restrained, there was no need whatsoever for the officer to shoot that dog. If it were my dog, I would be completely furious.


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## llombardo (Dec 11, 2011)

Mrs.K said:


> Makes you wonder how many dogs have unecessarily been shot in the name of "I feared for my life and the safety of our community."


Probably way more then you or I would care to hear about


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## DharmasMom (Jul 4, 2010)

Good. He needs to be charged.


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## APBTLove (Feb 23, 2009)

It makes so sick. Perhaps if they hadn't tortured the dog with tasers and then not even been able to deliver a kill shot I wouldn't be QUITE so outraged. But they did, even after hurting her like they did she did not try to attack them, and then to be slaughtered so inhumanely while restrained - WHAT kind of mental state are those officers in?? How could they do that?


Reminds me of this one! It looks like a clean shot at first, too, but then yo use her submissively wagging her tail and they shoot again. While completely restrained.


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## Mr & Mrs Kirkley (Mar 9, 2012)

In reference to the second video: What a heartbreaking video. The only shot I approve of is the second one to put the still alive dog out of its misery. I hope he got the max.


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## APBTLove (Feb 23, 2009)

What I don't understand is WHY we don't have our police officers armed and trained to handle animals and made to go through courses on body language and safely handling a dog without just slaughtering it - that is someone's family member. 

It should just be part of their training - they are bound to run in to dogs in their line of work, the first reaction shouldn't be to hurt and shoot it.


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## Mr & Mrs Kirkley (Mar 9, 2012)

I hope we never get pulled over with Xena in the car since she barks and growls when unknown people approach.


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## x0emiroxy0x (Nov 29, 2010)

How awful...if the dog is restrained then WHY shoot it? Fear is not an excuse! If it were, than a female cop could shoot a very tall, large man that was already in handcuffs because she was "scared" of him.

Hopefully this man is fired and the department makes a statement that it does not allow this kind of abuse.

(PS>>To those questioning dog training in the academy....my boyfriend graduated thursday...they logged 690 hours in 4 months and still did not cover all HUMAN areas completely. There is simply not time to waste on dogs when their job is to save humans.)


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## APBTLove (Feb 23, 2009)

It only takes four months to get in? 

Sorry, a bit off topic.


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## harmony (May 30, 2002)

I did not watch the video but read some comments to understand the post. What a shame! I do not bash the law but you are so right when you say some of them know nothing about dogs .


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## KatsMuse (Jun 5, 2012)

APBTLove said:


> It only takes four months to get in?
> 
> Sorry, a bit off topic.


Hate to hear about this stuff...

(APBTLove:
That's usually just the basic training, state laws, different blocks of study, some hands on classes.
After that, usually first year is probationary and continued on-the-job training. For that time, You'll have a FTO (or a group of them) evaluate you before you are able to go out on your own. At least here. 
Depends on what job you'll be doing.)

 Kat


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

Yo, you dudes that own pit bulls, ya _know _they have a bad rep. Ya _know _they ain't going to get the benefit of the doubt. People are _scared _of pit bulls. 

If you own pit bulls, German Shepherd Dogs, Dobermans, Rottweilers, ya have to keep them safe. 

Ok, so this person had a relative dog-sitting. Obviously, that wasn't the right choice for this dog, and this dog sitting relative. I feel for the owner, but he needs to be upset with his relative or himself for entrusting his dog to an un-trustworthy relative. 

I am not exonerating the police officer. I don't want to go there. 

But there are just so many ways for a dog to get himself killed when he is running loose. If this dog was run over by a Mack Truck and killed, who do we blame? The driver of the Mack Truck or the dog sitter. If the dog got shot by a hunter or farmer, who do we blame? The hunter or farmer? Well, sorry. We have formidable dogs. We need to keep them safe. 

If we do not feel comfortable leaving our dog with a relative, then we need to ante up and take the dog to a kennel if it is too long for the dog to be left crated or in the house. 

Maybe we should beat the owner up for not _training_ his dog sitter how to put a leash on the dog and take it out.

This dog would not be dead now, if someone attached to his owner would have been more careful, would have understood his job, would have been trustworthy. 

So who should be responsible for training in dealing with dogs? Police Departments or dog owners. This would have never happened if the dog was properly contained. Everyone knows that people are afraid of these dogs. I have dogs people tend to be wary of. I got to keep them safe. That is on me. 

My first GSD was hit by a pick up truck. Witnesses said he sped up to hit the dog. He did not stop. Who's fault was it? It was mine. My dog was running loose. My fault. Another driver might have avoided the dog, true. Another driver might have caused an accident trying not to hit my dog. 

It is a whole lot easier for me to adjust my actions to keep my dog safe, than it is for the world to change all the drivers in the world to be safer, more aware, less eager to kill a dog. I can't do anything to change their actions, only my actions. 

Just maybe if people would start containing their dogs properly, there would not be so many people trying to ban the breed.


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## llombardo (Dec 11, 2011)

Is this dog even a pit bull? It said that it was a chocolate lab mix...mixed with ????


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## GregK (Sep 4, 2006)

> Police officers who asked not to be identified said they were surprised and outraged that Price will be charged and could lose his job if convicted​


Seriously??? These cops should be fired too!!! What is wrong with these people!!!!???? :angryfire:


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## DharmasMom (Jul 4, 2010)

selzer said:


> Yo, you dudes that own pit bulls, ya _know _they have a bad rep. Ya _know _they ain't going to get the benefit of the doubt. People are _scared _of pit bulls.
> 
> If you own pit bulls, German Shepherd Dogs, Dobermans, Rottweilers, ya have to keep them safe.
> 
> ...



I'm sorry but, no. Accidents happen. They just do. We have all had them happen. It doesn't make you irresponsible, it makes you human. The dog was already RESTRAINED. There is NO excuse to shoot it except pure meanness. 

Yes, dogs get run over but to compare that to a dog that was already contained and then tazed and the shot 4 times is ludicrous. 

People can be totally responsible and still have an accident. I have had it happen a couple of times. First time, someone opened my gate and Dharma got out. Second time, I was opening the garage door when Pippa opened the door from the house to the garage ( I wasn't aware she knew how to open that door) and both dogs bolted through the open garage door as I was getting ready to back my car out. The third time was just a couple of months ago. My bff came over to get my dogs when I was admitted to the hospital. She used the wrong leash ( I had left the right ones with the food but she didn't see them) and it snapped as she was walking to the car. Pippa took off and then Dharma pulled loose. It took her an hour to catch them because they wouldn't come to her. I knew NOTHING about it until the next day because you can bet I would have walked out of that hospital to come get them.

My point is no matter how hard you try, sometimes accidents happen. Apparently that dog knew how to open the garage door. It certainly doesn't deserve to be shot once it is already restrained. THAT is going to far.


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## GregK (Sep 4, 2006)

DharmasMom said:


> The dog was already RESTRAINED. There is NO excuse to shoot it except pure meanness.


Exactly right!!!!


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## Mrs.K (Jul 14, 2009)

x0emiroxy0x said:


> How awful...if the dog is restrained then WHY shoot it? Fear is not an excuse! If it were, than a female cop could shoot a very tall, large man that was already in handcuffs because she was "scared" of him.
> 
> Hopefully this man is fired and the department makes a statement that it does not allow this kind of abuse.
> 
> (PS>>To those questioning dog training in the academy....my boyfriend graduated thursday...they logged 690 hours in 4 months and still did not cover all HUMAN areas completely. There is simply not time to waste on dogs when their job is to save humans.)


No time to waste on dogs? Dogs are such a major topic with cops. They encounter them on a daily basis and you can't just say "Oh, I'm just shooting the dog if it barks at me." and then have a potential human threat on your tail.
I'm waiting for the day of the wrong persons dog being shot.


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## Mrs.K (Jul 14, 2009)

ag


DharmasMom said:


> I'm sorry but, no. Accidents happen. They just do. We have all had them happen. It doesn't make you irresponsible, it makes you human. The dog was already RESTRAINED. There is NO excuse to shoot it except pure meanness.
> 
> Yes, dogs get run over but to compare that to a dog that was already contained and then tazed and the shot 4 times is ludicrous.
> 
> ...


Absolutely agree with you. 

A long time ago, a friend of the family was supposed to watch and care for our horses when my parents were on a trial (I believe). She did exactly what she was told to do and still, the unbelievable happened, the Horses broke lose. ALL OF THEM. They all went onto a busy Highway and completely freaked out. 
My mom's favorite female slid underneath a bus and for some lucky reason, neither horse, nor human was hurt. 

It wasn't her fault. She was a responsible person. She did exactly how she was told and still, the horses got lose because it was an accident. An accident that could have ended very badly but thankfully nobody was hurt and none of the horses had to be shot by the police all of them were caught and brought back to the stables. 

I don't remember if my parents were ever issued a ticket over that. 

As for the dogs, I don't think we've ever had an accident were they got lose. 

I had one, when Indra was a puppy, she slipped out of the car and went barking at a woman and her dog. She was half a year old and went through a reactive phase. The woman went bonkers and yelled at her and me, which made things only worse. It was an accident. She was still a silly pup but already big enough for people being scared.... 

Accidents happen. Sometimes it's out of our hands. We are dealing with living beings and not with robots which is why we sometimes can't foresee what's going to happen. Especially when you care for someone elses dog. 

I had my friends dogs over. The sweetest dogs at his house, well behaved but once I had them at my house, it was a completely different story. They went completely out of control and one of them has "tail-bang" as he calls it. Our house looked like a slaughter house he was bleeding all over the place. 
I rather drive out to his house three or four times a day instead of having two out of control dogs at my place having to deal with all that blood. 

He is a fence jumper on top of that. So I was out with him, watching him closely every time he was out there. He's known to go over the fence, which is why he has a tracker. Only problem, he lost that tracker when he was at my house.


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## KayleeGSD (Oct 2, 2012)

Wow that is horrible.  I feel bad for the dog, and the police officer. My take on this is I can understand the great concern for safety I do feel that the dog did not need to be shot. Not all police officers are trained to handle k9's. Many people seem to think because some one has badge that they have been trained. Many officers are average pet owners like myself. 

The 911 call the neighbor made was alarming. You can read the article here about the 911 call made... 
Commerce City Police answer questions about dog killed on Saturday | 9news.com

Second animal control should of been the one to handle it but the police were most likely notified due to the the phone call made to 911. I do not understand why the police did what they did. The dog was not being aggressive, and why was animal control NOT doing their job by taking the lead role? Animal control is trained to handle situations like this. All they had to do was get the dog and bring it in. Why allow the police officer tazer the dog?

I blame the person who was dog sitting for the relative. I blame the neighbor for making a 911 call saying that the dog was being aggressive when it was not. I blame the owner as well for leaving the dog in the care of a person who was irresponsible. 

The police officer went to far and should of allowed animal control do their job and assist as needed. The animal control officer got the dog then the police officer shot it. Using the tazer on the dog put it in panic mode and the normal response for any animal is to escape or defend itself. I am not excusing anyone in this situation and I am glad this was caught on video. It is also possible that the police officer might have panicked himself when the dog went to flee.

The best thing people can do for Chloe is educate people about dogs. Educate police officers for situations like this and how to handle dogs with a procedure in place. This should teach all dogs owners to be cautious who you have taking care of your pet when away. Last this is why it is so important to train our dogs to come when called to keep them safe. Also introduce your dog to your neighbors in case something like this happens. Educate your neighbors about your dog so they do not fear them or assume the dog is aggressive because of its breed.


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