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Woman Dies Weeks After Cop Shoots Guide Dog
theINDYchannel.com ^ | Thu Mar 4, 3:59 PM ET

Posted on 03/04/2004 9:17:35 PM PST by hookman

A Madison County mother believes her daughter's death could have been prevented if an Anderson police officer had not shot her dog to death last month.

Andrea Hill, 26, died after suffering an epileptic seizure Saturday, RTV6's Jennifer Carmack reported.

Hill's mother, Linda Hall, said her medically trained black lab, Max, alerted her whenever her daughter was having a seizure.

"My dog wasn't here to let me know she had a seizure and she suffocated," Hall said.

Max was shot to death by an Anderson police officer Feb. 6. It all started when Hill's 6-year-old son didn't come home, so she called police to help with the search.

"When they first went to the house, there was a very vicious dog within the home," Anderson Deputy Chief Mark Yeskie said.

Hall said she put Max in a bedroom and left with another officer to look for her grandson, but when Officer Phil Allen re-entered the home to check for the child inside, police said Hill had opened the bedroom door, letting the dog out.

"Basically he came out and started attacking the officer. He got to the degree where he was growling, had his mouth open trying to bite the officer," Yeskie said. "You have an officer that's being viciously attacked by a 60-pound dog, and he had no choice."

According to the police report, the officer kicked the dog and shot it several times, Carmack reported, but Hall said the dog didn't pose a threat.

"He opened that door and he shot the dog in the face. The dog came at his shoe, but he didn't bite him. He didn't hurt him. He was getting at his shoe to try to get him to leave," Hall said.

Police said they were not told that the dog was medically trained.

"Through this entire incident we were never told anything special about this dog. It was a 60-pound black lab, is all we knew at the time," Yeskie said. "We're sorry for her death, for the destruction of the dog, but I think we reacted properly."

The Hall family said they are considering filing a lawsuit against the city and police department, Carmack reported.

"I explained to the officers when they came to interview us that the dog was a medical trained dog for epilepsy," Hall said. "If Max would have been alive, we wouldn't have buried my daughter today (Wednesday). Yes, I'm angry."


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cop; dog; donutwatch; leo; petkillers; pigs; shoots; warondogs; workingdogs
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To: ambrose
I agree. We have had four recent, police shooting suspect incidents in the last year. In each case the suspect was shot with a minimum of 14 rounds. These guys have no fire-discipline.

I'm a law and order guy, and have many cops as friends; but as a former USMCR Gysgt., I see too many of these cops as basically trigger happy or too prone to over react.
141 posted on 05/28/2005 8:49:24 PM PDT by jps098
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To: RGSpincich
Andrea's family says they medically trained the dog themselves [link]

I included the full sentence, and underlined the part you left out.

"Andrea's family says they medically trained the dog themselves and told police that from the beginning."

Your linked story is from March 2004.

142 posted on 05/28/2005 9:36:45 PM PDT by Ken H
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To: SpyGuy
It is far easier to prove that dogs are governed by a basic instinct to fight and attack, than it is to prove that any significant number of police officers wantonly shoot "anything that moves."

Nice try but you lose. Go put on a pair of panties along with the deppity who was scared by a medically trained Black Lab. Odds are the dog had better training than Barney did, and probably was smarter.

Madison County has a bad cop problem.

143 posted on 05/28/2005 9:46:46 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard
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To: LadyDoc
And a trained Guide Dog would be trained NOT to bite strangers...or else it might bite anyone coming into the house, including ambulance drivers, EMT's etc......so I suspect it was not a proper "guide dog"...just a mutt who the one suing "claims" to be a "trained dog"...

There was no deception about the dog's training. They said from the beginning that they were the ones who medically trained it. See link to March 7, 2004 article in post #137, with the following sentence:

"Andrea's family says they medically trained the dog themselves and told police that from the beginning."

144 posted on 05/28/2005 10:13:37 PM PDT by Ken H
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To: LadyDoc
So there might be many reasons that the person "died" of a seizure...all of them controllable by the person who is going to benefit from a huge lawsuit...

Are you saying the overdose on prescription drugs should have been anticipated by the mother?

145 posted on 05/28/2005 10:49:51 PM PDT by Ken H
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To: Ken H

The police dispute Hall's claim that she told them. I don't see a 2004 date on the article.


146 posted on 05/29/2005 6:04:00 AM PDT by RGSpincich
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To: Ken H

Okay. It probably is from 2004. That doesn't change anything.


147 posted on 05/29/2005 6:09:43 AM PDT by RGSpincich
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To: LadyDoc

The only witness to the dog's behavior is the cop who shot the dog; would you expect him to say he shot the dog because he had wet his pants?


148 posted on 05/29/2005 6:18:59 AM PDT by Old Professer (As darkness is the absence of light, evil is the absence of good; innocence is blind.)
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To: Arthalion
I agree labs are the best dog for families, or for someone who wants a very loyal companion. My experience is that they really don't need much training because they just seem to know.

I have a wonderful 3 year old chocolat lab right now I am trying to find a good home for. Where do you live?
149 posted on 05/29/2005 8:51:24 AM PDT by Delphinium
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To: oceanperch
I agree with you someone is looking for money. Before I open my door I put the boys up...period.

The mother DID put the dog up in a bedroom. From the article...

Hall said she put Max in a bedroom and left with another officer to look for her grandson, but when Officer Phil Allen re-entered the home to check for the child inside, police said Hill had opened the bedroom door, letting the dog out.

Most dogs wouldn't be to happy about a strange man opening a bedroom door without the family being home.

Its more likely that the officer was use the situation as an excuse to search the home for drugs or weapons.

150 posted on 05/29/2005 9:02:27 AM PDT by JeffAtlanta
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To: Oberon
the boys in blue do a hard, thankless job, and sometimes are quite heroic.

By and large, the job is not that hard. Most simply ride around in a car all day. They are probably the most "thanked" profession on the planet. They are basically above the law both on and off duty.

151 posted on 05/29/2005 9:12:55 AM PDT by JeffAtlanta
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To: RGSpincich
First this woman loses her six year old son and then she can't make other arrangments to monitor her 26 year old daughter after the loss of the dog.

You can't stand over a person 24 hours a day. Sleep is required. There is a reason why those dogs exist - it's not just because parents want to be lazy.

152 posted on 05/29/2005 9:15:12 AM PDT by JeffAtlanta
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To: RGSpincich; LadyDoc
Okay. It probably is from 2004. That doesn't change anything.

The article you cited was written March 7, 2004, seven days after the daughter's death on February 28, 2004. IOW, the nature of the dog's training was known well before any lawsuit would be filed.

Ladydoc wrote: And a trained Guide Dog would be trained NOT to bite strangers...or else it might bite anyone coming into the house, including ambulance drivers, EMT's etc......so I suspect it was not a proper "guide dog"...just a mutt who the one suing "claims" to be a "trained dog"...

1. The family never claimed it was a "trained Guide Dog", nor did they claim it was a medically certified dog.

2. In order for Ladydoc's innuendo to be true, the family would have had to concoct the story within 7 days (at the most) of the the daughter's death. She also contradicted herself when she wrote:

Finally, if the dog died, then maybe the mother should have kept an eye on her daughter...

How can she make that statement if she believed it was just a mutt without training?

BTW, what do you think about the officer going to the house to look for the kid, then firing several shots into the house from the entrance?

153 posted on 05/29/2005 9:16:11 AM PDT by Ken H
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To: Cornelius Jay McGuyver

Had you lurked here long before signing up? Are you a retread? Whatever, excellent observation from one of the class of '4. ;^)


154 posted on 05/29/2005 9:22:57 AM PDT by 68 grunt (3/1 India, 3rd, 68-69, 0311)
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To: TChad
I see how people can hate the police.

This topic could use it's own thread. A bit off-topic but my recent travels (by car) to other states caused me to realize that in California, we live in a near-police state.

It's not the cops I blame, but the idiot, fear-mongering, politicians who propose more cops as the answer to all our ills while allowing them to duck under the protection of a "tough on crime" image.

Road maintenance stinks and is no doubt, a casualty of the excess spent on the 'moblie revenue raisers'.

155 posted on 05/29/2005 10:00:26 AM PDT by budwiesest
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To: JeffAtlanta

or they just hang out at donut shops. some of them just hang around in a gas station, waiting for some idiot to commit a minor traffic infraction so they can write up a ticket.


156 posted on 05/29/2005 12:31:10 PM PDT by ambrose (NEWSWEAK LIED .... AND PEOPLE DIED)
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To: budwiesest

>It's not the cops I blame, but the idiot, fear-mongering, politicians who propose more cops as the answer to all our ills while allowing them to duck under the protection of a "tough on crime" image.

Yes, the new local cops were initially paid for by a federal COPS grant, and some politicos did indeed crow about their own virtue for getting the money. As I recall, there was some controversy about these grants, since there was no provision for ongoing funding. How were communities going to pay for the new cops when the initial funds ran out? The answer is now clear, at least where I live: cops suck the money out of their communities with fines for trivial or police-contrived infractions. The local police motto is not, "To Protect and Serve," but "Let No Finable Offense Go Unfined".

I didn't go into local police brutality in my previous post, but I should have. So far no people or pets have been shot, but there have been three recent incidents where the police apparently used inappropriate force against local women. Three lawsuits have been rumored, and we'll see what happens. A common theme with these incidents is that that there was no significant problem until the cops appeared. When the police "controlled the situation," their arrogant attitude and physically intrusive actions provoke escalating responses. The cops created serious problems by responding to trivial problems. Better they had never showed up.


157 posted on 05/29/2005 3:08:54 PM PDT by TChad
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To: TChad
Three days in a 3rd floor hotel overlooking the main street in Logan, Utah, I never saw a cop drive by. Nor a firetruck or ambulance.

The first week back in Sacramento, I've seen dozens in less than a ten square mile area. One on a motorcycle (guarding an intersection) and two others in squad cars guarding another intersection from the crime of making a 'California' stop.

There are too many cops and not enough second ammendment in California. Period.

People are rude, drive like idiots, and have evolved into the least courteous bunch I've encountered in a while. Plus, the roads are pot-holed to the max. It's a nightmare brought to you by pussy liberals who've effed-up this state by taxing everyone to death and making funds available to turn it into a gulag.

158 posted on 05/29/2005 4:04:11 PM PDT by budwiesest (Too many cops, not enough 2nd Ammendment.)
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To: budwiesest

>People are rude, drive like idiots, and have evolved into the least courteous bunch I've encountered in a while. Plus, the roads are pot-holed to the max. It's a nightmare brought to you by pussy liberals who've effed-up this state by taxing everyone to death and making funds available to turn it into a gulag.

Leave. Life is too short. I grew up in southern CA and spent most of my life there and in the Bay area. Leaving was the best choice I ever made. Sacramento doesn't even have a beach, for chrissakes.

For all my complaints, I think that we have some chance of solving the police problem here. Unlike my experience in the large CA cities, here I personally know the "powers that be," and at least some strongly agree with me about the police problem. The mayor actually managed to fire the paramilitary-wannabe police chief, though the cops hired by that idiot are still with us. It is not going to be easy to reduce the size of the police force here, but there is hope. Not sure how much hope there is for Sacto.


159 posted on 05/29/2005 5:12:49 PM PDT by TChad
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To: ambrose
Have you noticed they always say "the officer was in fear for his life"?

Yes, and apparently, he was. Dogs "smell" fear, which is why I don't have much of a problem with dogs (worked for a delivery company for 18 years, a la UPS, now for USPS). If you approach one with caution, but without fear,("I'm the big dog here!), they pretty much leave you alone. Only had to get "physical" with 2 dogs in 18 years, both tried to prevent me from getting back into my truck...(big mistake on their part)

Also did some service work for a farmer one time. He had a blue heeler tied up near the barn, that would run and lunge at me when I walked by. Never wanted to try it again when I waved a crowbar in her face.....

160 posted on 05/29/2005 5:25:24 PM PDT by dirtbiker (Solution for Terrorism: Nuke 'em 'till they glow, then shoot 'em in the dark!)
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