Family Taking Legal Action After Police Shoot Their Dog During Mistaken Stop

Fox New, Top Stories ^ | 01-10-03 | Associated Press

[Alylonee]

COOKEVILLE, Tennessee — A family has filed multiple complaints after police mistakenly pulled them over as robbery suspects, then shot and killed their dog as it bounded from the car.

A tape released by authorities Wednesday documents the incident, which began when a Tennessee state trooper and three Cookeville police cars pulled over James Smoak and his family as they drove home Jan. 1 from a vacation.

The trooper suspected the Smoaks' dark green station wagon was connected to a robbery, Tennessee Highway Patrol officials said.

Troopers ordered the family out of the car, and the video shows James and Pamela Smoak and their 17-year-old son, Brandon, obeying. They came out with their hands up, got down and were handcuffed.

About a minute after the traffic stop, one of the dogs — a bulldog-boxer mix named Patton — jumped from the car and raced toward Cookeville police officer Eric Hall, who was holding a shotgun. The tape shows that Hall stepped back and fired just before Patton reached him.

The dog appeared to be wagging its tail as it ran toward the officer, the tape shows.

Patton died from the shotgun blast. And as it turns out, the Smoaks had not committed a crime at all.

Police had suspected them based on a report of money flying from their car as it sped down Interstate 40. They later discovered Smoak had simply left his wallet on the car while pumping gas.

Smoak, of Saluda, North Carolina, declined comment Wednesday. He said he is pursuing legal action and has been advised not to discuss the case. The Smoaks have filed complaints with all agencies involved in the stop.

Hall, the officer who shot the dog, has contended he had no choice when the animal charged him.

He has been reassigned to administrative duties pending an independent review. But the Cookeville Police Department's internal investigation found that Hall did not use excessive force.

[Mo1]

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[Veggie Todd]

Wagging of the tail is in no way an indication of what the dog is about to do. That statement shouldn't even be in the story. The family should have repeatedly told the cops there was a dog in the car and asked the cops if they could restrain him first. My dog wears a harness attached to the seat belt everywhere we go.

[GovernmentShrinker]

Apparently you haven't been following this story. The family is heard repeatedly on the videotape asking the officers to close the car door so the dogs won't get out. Furthermore, one of the officers, while holding the car door open, is heard telling the other officers that there's a dog in the car, but still he doesn't close the door. If the police can't figure out that they need to close the car door when they know there's a dog inside, it's a bit much to expect the family to do it while they're complying with orders to exit their car at gunpoint.

[scan59]

They did repeatedly tell the police officers, and asked them to close the car doors.

[Alylonee]

Did you see the video??? The dog is romping around in a completely unagressive manor. But lets give that cop the benefit of the doubt for a minute and say he doesn't know the first thing about dogs.... Was shooting the dog in the head necessary? Could he have disable it somehow first? Or maybe he should've listened when the entire family begged him to close the doors to their car?

[Veggie Todd]

My bad. No, I haven't seen the video and the story above is all I know about it. I didn't notice that this was only part of the story. Sorry. If the cops were too dumb too close the car door, and too dumb to recognize a friendly dog, then their only alternative was to shoot it. In that case the family is justified to seek damages.

[Alylonee]

You should be thankful you didn't see the video because it was really disturbing. There are other articles on FR that tell more about the story than the one I posted. Sorry, it was the only one I could find at the time!

That poor family :(

[GovernmentShrinker]

It appears that there's a bumper crop of dumb cops in this place. A random driver reporting seeing money flying out a car turns into a SWAT-style felony stop of "suspected robbers". Yeah, robbers always toss the cash they just stole out the car window as they make their getaway down the interstate /s. Methinks quite a number of cops who were involved, including some who were not physically on the scene, need to be sent away to new jobs which they might be qualified to handle with close supervision -- like cleaning up dog poop at the local pound and shelters.

[Sam Cree]

It seems like the troopers actions made sure that the dog could not be contained. Sounds like these troopers are undertrained or else just have bad attitudes.

[concerned about politics]

I saw the clip of this on FOX. The dog was not at all vicious acting. It was barking and wagging it's tail!!
I'd sue the hell out of these Nazies.
I understand being a police officer can be a thankless job, but this was downright brutal.
The people, and their poor dog, were innocent! The officers followed some busy body report on the other end of a phone!!!

[radioman]

I think that guy wanted to kill something so bad he just had to squeeze the trigger.

Same as the cop in California who shot the eleven year old boy in the back.
It was the second time that officer had "accidentally" shot someone.

Men like this just want an excuse to kill.