Woman Dies Weeks After Cop Shoots Guide Dog

theINDYchannel.com ^ | Thu Mar 4, 3:59 PM ET

[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."

[Indie]

The cop lied. Labs are excellent protectors but don't lunge and bite...unless of course perhaps someone tries to kick it!! Now WHAT was a good way to PO the dog!!

What a woosie cop. I've had labs all my life I ought to know.

[capitan_refugio]

Guide dogs are specially trained. They go through a long period as a puppy, being socialized, and then, if they pass "entrance exams," they are given more specialized training. Vicious dogs DO NOT get to be guide dogs.

[LadyDoc]

Scumbag cop. I am sick of these donut eaters with 80 IQs shooting at anything that moves.

that's right. He should have let the dog bite his arm off instead.

Medically trained dog? Sorry, I don't buy that. Dogs that are formally trained don't go around snapping and biting at people. They are chosen for their calm temperament.

Indeed, a dog "trained" to get help when a person has an epileptic attack would be no good if it attacked people who came to help the victim.... sounds like they trained the dog to attack strangers, and now want money...

[ambrose]

your "Officer Friendly" in action...

[mysterio]

I live right next to Anderson. One part of the town has a claim to fame of being one of the biggest ticket writers in the state. It's called Edgewood. If you go to court to fight the ticket, the judge will not take any excuse, and he keeps you there for two hours before your initial hearing even begins. Aside from tickets, I haven't been pushed around too much by the cops over there. I would say that Anderson isn't as bad as Indianapolis, where there is currently an all out war on local music venues being conducted by the police.

Sorry for getting off topic. The cops that shot the dog should be fired, and the city should have to pay a hefty sum. Shooting guide dogs is inexcusable.

[LadyDoc]

Vicious dogs DO NOT get to be guide dogs.

that's my point. This was NOT a "guide" dog. It probably wasn't a trained dog. they would not have had to put a trained dog in a room to prevent it from biting a visitor. Why did they do that? Maybe because it was not a "trained" dog at all, merely a housepet with a little training. And Labs don't attack, unless they are trained to attack strangers.... want to bet there is something "missing" in this article? Like illicit drugs also hidden in the bedroom, where they just happened to find the dog? And death in an epileptic seizure is extremely rare...would love to see the autopsy.

[oceanperch]

Our Lab helps with medical also.
Our Lab is very protective and times EMT has had to come out we put the labs in the van.

If her daughter was in such need to bad mom didn't share a room or had closer eye on daughter untill more help could come.

My son can suffacate very easily with his trach and being a quad so we share a room and the dog alerts me when he needs suctioning.

It sounds unfortunate but the dog should have been restrained. We had a black lab and she was way too protective have 2 yellows now and they are rumored to have better tempermants.

Really unfortunate for all involved but dog owners needs to have control at all times.

When EMT comes for resp. distress we get a crew of volenteer FD show and everyone know I put all the boys in the van so no one is at risk. They always ask if the boys will be ok, yes they are use to travelling daily in the van and it is a secure den like area for them when they are nervous with all the bells and whistles.

We have had bad guys come through the area and the Sherriff dept. always calls if they need to come on our property so I will have the dogs put in a secure setting before they get out of their cars.

[proudofthesouth]

I'm seeing more and more people nowadays don't know (or weren't taught when they were children) how to behave around strange dogs. Dogs are territorial creatures. Some of them will growl at a stranger who enters their turf. But the ^%$#^*()!!!! cop should have allowed the homeowner to control the dog. Where I live there have been too many cases of "cops gone wild" who have sensely and stupidly shot dogs other than allowing the dogs owners to get them under control. I hope this lady can sue that cop for everything he has!!

[oceanperch]

My black Lab who died 4yrs ago was over protective. We went to LA once and someone tried breaking into the van didn't get far.

But Waui did get aggresive when people came inside our gated property. It does happen with some Labs.

She was never viscous in our presence but enough people experienced her when we where gone.

Our Chocolate (can barely walk) and our eight year old we rarely ever leave home alone, now our new baby 10wks started training at 7weeks and we expect to travel with him too but for now he travels in a crate untill he matures.

Leash in public no matter what except for the Chocolate as he can barely walk more than four steps and has always been a loving crotch sniffer.

[oceanperch]

Men in uniform who are trained as PO sometimes come across as calous and hard maybe the dog took that the wrong way.

Why didn't Mom keep closer tabs on her daughter after the dogs death knowing her medical needs?

I agree with you someone is looking for money. The cop did not cause or stop the treatment of the daughters seizure.

Before I open my door I put the boys up...period.

[oceanperch]

I remember a story about a young lady who was quad Cerebral Palsy and the parents loaded her up in the van for church went back in to close up and came back to find a plastic bag had flew in the kids face and suffucated her.

I know make sure no debris/burger wrappers ect. are left in the van esp. when on the road and I run in to go potty.

Unfortunate story but money is not going to take away the pain of losing a disabled child.

[gd124]

Like illicit drugs also hidden in the bedroom, where they just happened to find the dog?

Or the bodies of three dozen prostitutes, missing Nazi treasure or Osama bin Laden...

If we're going to accuse them of crimes with absolutely no evidence, we might as well make them interesting crimes...

[Oztrich Boy]

If we're going to accuse them of crimes with absolutely no evidence, we might as well make them interesting crimes...

Cop was looking to loot a supposedly empty house, and panicked when he found the dog in the bedroom.

[dobberkcd]

Particularly on private property

[Rifleman]

No trained aid dog is vicious. They are screened for personality much more carefully than cops are. The cop is a scum. And either a coward for killing a harmless useful dog or a vicous thug who killed because he could, for fun.

[moonman]

I agree. They are CTA (Cover Their A$$es) on this one. No reason for their actions.

[LadyDoc]

Cop was looking to loot a supposedly empty house

They were looking for a missing kid. First place the cops do is search the house, to make sure the kid isn't in the closet, under a bed, etc. hiding from his mom...happens all the time with "missing kids"

...even Jon Benet Ramsey wasn't found for hours because careless cops didn't search every closet and open every door in the house because they assumed she was kidnapped. These cops were following procedure.

again, I point out that these people are after money for a "trained" dog who was killed. But the dog was so vicious he was locked in the bedroom when the cops came. Sorry, but trained dogs don't have to be locked up. Guidedogs are picked for their patience with strangers.

As I said in an earlier post: Follow the money.

And do an autopsy to see why a person died of a simple seizure: even when I worked at a retarded institution with a couple hundred seizure patients, we lost only about two a year during seizures--and this was thirty years ago, when we just didn't have many medicines to control seizures, unlike now when we have much better medications...yes it happens, but it's rare.

[Skooz]

Idiot. Some morons should not have guns. I'm glad my family is not being "protected" by this imbecile.

[DugwayDuke]

"But the dog was so vicious he was locked in the bedroom when the cops came. Sorry, but trained dogs don't have to be locked up. Guidedogs are picked for their patience with strangers."

My dogs are certainly not "vicious" either. But I do put them up in the bedroom when there are strangers in the house. To say that locking a dog up in a bedroom proves the dog is "vicious" is to say that using a leash in public also "proves" the dog is vicious.

Today, police are trained to protect themselves in any situation. Rightly so, but part of that training is to kill dogs when there is the slightest indication that an officer might be in danger. (There was even a special dog team at Waco whose mission was to kill the dogs that were locked in a fenced enclosure. The first thing shot at Ruby Ridge was the family dog. There have been numerous reports of police officers killing dogs upon entering houses.) I suppose it would have been too much trouble to close the door.

[Skooz]

I have to put my Boxer outside or in another room when strangers come over. He tends to annoy them with his constant licking and tail-wagging.