Posted on 05/14/2012 6:32:00 PM PDT by Altariel
Several neighbors in the 1100 block of S.W. Plass Ave. were upset Monday night after a Topeka police officer drew his weapon and shot a dog to death.
“He drew his gun and fired five or six shots,” said neighbor Constantinos Miklas Acton. “He killed that dog dead for no reason.”
Acton said he was painting guttering on the front of his house about 7 p.m. Monday when he saw a uniformed officer approach a neighbor’s house and knock on the door.
Acton said the officer didn’t get an answer so he walked across S.W. Plass Avenue and made contact with Acton. The officer told Acton there had been a call about a barking dog, Acton said. After the two spoke briefly, the officer went back to the house and Acton went back to work. A few minutes later, Acton took a break and saw the dog, a German shepherd and border collie mix, galloping playfully toward the officer.
A few seconds later, shots rang out.
“He knew I saw it,” Acton said. “He really got hot under the collar.”
Topeka police Sgt. Jennifer Cross didn’t release the officer’s name Monday night. She did confirm there had been several calls made about a barking dog and another dog possibly loose in the area.
She said the officer tried to make contact with the dog’s owner, and when the dog approached the officer, “he felt in danger.”
“His training is to protect himself,” Cross said.
Detectives and officers spent more than an hour talking to neighbors. Cross said the investigation is ongoing.
On Monday night, several neighbors watched as police worked in the driveway where the dog was shot at 1181 S.W. Plass.
The owners of the dog, who arrived at the scene after the shooting, were visibly upset.
One woman shouted at a group of officers that she was upset they shot and killed the dog when there are other crimes happening in Topeka.
Neighbor Audrey Dukes said the dog, who neighbors call Dallas, often played with her children and was friendly. Dukes said she saw the dog earlier in the evening without a leash. She added that the dog never was unfriendly toward her three children.
She said she is upset because the officer fired several shots at a “friendly dog when we have a block full of kids outside playing.”
When Dukes tried to talk to the officer who shot the dog and a corporal on the scene, she said she was treated rudely.
“They told me to mind my own business,” Dukes said. “They wouldn’t tell us anything. We had a police officer out here who shot a dog five or six times. I think the Topeka police handled this poorly. There was no way that dog was aggressive. And five or six shots? I don’t know the reason the officer had to shoot Dallas. It’s unbelievable.”
I went to the link and looked at the 3 pics. It looks like it was the Shepherd who was shot.
I agree that too many dogs are shot without much thought but take a timeout and let the authorities do their jobs. This is an article written from the dog owner’s perpective(kind of like the race-baiters and the Treyvon Martin shooting)while the police sit back and say no comment
If it happened like the article states, someone should be fired. Until all facts are in, lets stop running around with torches and pitchforks calling for someone’s head. If I believed everything I read, I would have thought George Zimmerman was guilty just because Jessie and Al said so.
A dog attack is not much different than being attacked by a human with a knife. You can stand there and try to judge their intentions but have to react fast if charged otherwise you are in serious trouble. If an armed thug charges a cop, I hope the cop is able to draw and shoot him before he is attacked. No different than with a dog.
Agreed!
If the police are shooting innocent people, we get very upset.
Some thoughts on this, Jack. First, when a citizen discharges a firearm in a residential neighborhood, they are often on the hook for unlawful or reckless discharge of a firearm. We won't see that with this cop. When a citizen defends his or her life with a firearm, the burden of proof must be shown that person's life was in danger. Oftentimes, like the Trayvon case, the shooter was being brutally beaten or had "proof" of being harmed.
In this case, the officer just assumed that the dog was going to attack and killed it.
Now, my line of questioning comes into play: if a law enforcement animal is considered a cop, then animals have been anthropomorphized into free-will creatures, an assessment that is ludicrous on its face. However, if that standard of humanism is applied to a canine, then why can't a family consider their dog just as human with a life just as valuable as that of a child and defend that animal with force?
In essence, I agree with you. If cops can shoot and kill a human to defend a law enforcement canine, then families should be able to defend their pets in the same manner and with the same amount of force, even if that person is a law enforcement officer.
This cop reacted poorly and maliciously, in my opinion, and the family should sue on the grounds that a member of their family was killed much the way a perp can be charged for murder of a law enforcement officer for killing a cop dog.
Today it is dogs. Tomorrow it will be human beings.
Just watch. It’s gonna happen.
You continue to compare apples and pianos.
There are eyewitnesses here testifying to the officer’s behavior. Are you going to believe them, or are you going to wait for the police’s Official Truth on the case?
Do you believe it acceptable for a government employee to EVER say to one who pays his salary “Mind your own business?”
People and dogs ARE different.
People have the ability and inclination to disguise their intentions.
Dogs make their intentions clear to anyone taking the time (a few seconds) to read them.
A dog is not comparable to a man armed with a knife. You are trying to justify this officer.
Yeah, we hear all the time about the numerous innocent policemen getting mauled by family pets because they weren’t quick enough on the draw, huh? You are a phenomenal ratsnake douchebag, and I hope your dog shoots you.
Thank you.. I guess I read it wrong the first time.. the dog was a ‘german shepherd/border collie mix’..
If a good dog goes after a cop or anyone.. it’s because they are picking up on bad energy from that person. Cops need to change their attitudes about dogs and not be so freakin’ fearful of them.
I wish the Dog Whisperer could train these ignorant cops on how to handle them without killing them!
Where did that come from? Sounds like something I would expect from the jerks at Democrat Underground. I simply state that it is early to pass judgment without knowing the facts and the flames roll out. I don’t get it. You have the bootlickers that think cops cannot do wrong and then you have the cop-haters. I think I know where your sympathies lie. Perhaps you should research some article on dog maulings and deaths and read the parts where the neighbors say that they had complained about past aggressiveness and that the cops did nothing. Then read the parts about the poor little kids that died. Perhaps that is why a cop would take such actions. Have a blessed day fellow freeper.
Typical snivelling Liberal bleeding heart drivel, "Think of the kids..."
This article, pantload, wasn't about "kids" who shoot dogs with cause, it was another in a long, long, sickening line of out of control, trigger-crazed rogue swine slaughtering family pets for the twisted thrill of exercising total control over another life, and killing something.
There are people who would make really good cops. I even know a few. Precious few. The sad, sick truth is that far too few of them are drawn to the job, so society ends up with the bullies and sadists and bent little pricks who got picked on in school wearing badges and slaughtering their pets just because they can.
Look at the books written by cops.
Joseph Wambaugh. Serpico. Kaizen. Roberts. The list is daunting—story after heartwrenching story of the one good cop whose life was almost snuffed by all the bad pigs who didn't trust him just because he was honest.
I make no distinction between the rogue pigs and the civilian filth who give them cover. You dirtbag. The only good news is that you have to wake up tomorrow, look in the mirror, and remember that you're still you. Enjoy.
Complete and utter codswallop! Dogs (and kids) used to for the most part run loose around most neighborhoods until the "progressives" took control of civic politics. They then started the slide into tyranny we are seeing.
You have been well-trained and conditioned to believe that the freedom these things represent is something to be feared and repressed.
I feel badly for kids today, and their dogs are almost as shunned as tobacco users.
Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it!
Both my replies to you were over the top, and I apologize for my intransigent apoplecty.
I absolutely love dogs. I thoroughly detest "bad" anything, but worst of all, I cannot abide bad cops. Next to that, I hate my own bad behavior, and I sincerely apologize.
;-\
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