Posted on 06/24/2018 10:41:51 AM PDT by BBell
Wichita, KS — Earlier this year, a cop was fired after he shot a little girl inside her own home while trying to kill her dog. Showing that they are willing to hold their own accountable, the officer was charged with felony aggravated battery in March. And now, months after the original incident, the video has finally been released from the officer’s body camera.
On Thursday, Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett released body camera video from officer Dexter Betts which shows him attempt to kill a 35 pound dog and strike a small 9-year-old girl instead.
In January, Betts was placed on administrative leave after discharging his firearm inside a family’s home—in the cowardly attempt to kill a dog. Then, in an actual moment of accountability, Officer Betts was fired and in March he was charged.
The officer was hired last January and barely made it a year before being fired.
According to Kansas.com, Betts was the first cop in decades to be charged in an on-duty shooting that resulted in an injury or death.
According to the family’s attorney, the girl, hit by bullet fragments, was so directly in the line of fire when the officer shot at her dog that the flashlight he shined from above his gun barrel illuminated her face right before he fired. Indeed, this has now been verified by the video.
The video shows Betts and his partner approach the house with flashlights and enter through the front door. When they enter the house, several children are seen in the living room watching television.
Betts checks the hallway and then returns to the living room where he becomes frightened by the family’s medium sized English bull terrier named Chevy.
“Ok, we got a dog inside here, too,” he says. “Whoa! Whoa!”
Then, with careless disregard for the children in the room, Betts puts the lives of multiple innocent lives in danger to shoot at a dog who just barked at him.
“Ow! Ow! Ow, you hurt my eye! Ow! Ow!” the girl begins to yell immediately. Her screams are absolutely heartbreaking.
Betts then orders all the children out of the room. When dispatch asks Betts over the radio what happened, he tells them the “Dog inside attacked us.” Apparently barking is now an attack.
According to the charge against him, Betts “did … unlawfully and recklessly cause bodily harm to another person … (the child) in a manner whereby great bodily harm, disfigurement or death could have been inflicted, to wit: firing a handgun at a dog while a child was in the room.”
Naturally, Betts’ attorney, Jess Hoeme says her client did nothing wrong and was totally in the right when he nearly killed a little girl to prevent the possibility of her small dog biting him.
“I expect that this will be litigated at length because I firmly believe that Mr. Betts did not act recklessly under the circumstances, and we look forward to presenting our defense in court,” she said.
As Kansas.com reports, Charley O’Hara, attorney for the girl’s family, said the child’s mother is pleased.
“She said she was happy with the charge that was filed, and it was the correct thing to do.” Still, because of the shooting, “the girl is still struggling,” O’Hara said, without elaborating.
According to the report, O’Hara praised District Attorney Marc Bennett, whose office filed the charge: “I think it is a big deal. I think there’s a tendency of certain government officials to treat law enforcement officers differently than the regular public for the same acts, and it appears that Mr. Bennett is treating everyone equally, which is very admirable.”
As KAKE reported at the time, officers were called at around 6:15 p.m. to the report of a domestic disturbance and suicidal person in the 1500 block of North Gentry, near 13th and Hillside. Officer Paul Cruz said in a news release that officers were told a 33-year-old man in the home had held a gun in his mouth and choked a dog.
When officers arrived at the home, instead of getting the woman and four children to safety, they went in guns blazing after learning that the gun the man had held in his mouth was under a pillow in a bedroom.
“While the officers were retrieving the gun, a mid-sized mixed breed dog charged at one of the officers,” the release said.” The officer pulled his service weapon and shot at the dog, missing it.”
This is Chevy.
The poorly aimed shot then ricocheted off the floor and a fragment of the bullet struck the innocent 9-year-old girl in the forehead just above her right eye. Had the bullet struck just an inch lower, the poor girl could’ve been permanently blinded or worse.
Danielle Maples, the girl’s mother recounted the horrifying experience to the press noting that her daughter was sitting down on the couch when she was struck in the head. Also, her 6-year-old son was standing right next to the officer when he fired not one but two shots.
The little girl was brought to the hospital and treated for her injuries. Luckily, Maples’ three other children were not physically injured. However, the emotional scarring left by this experience could last a lifetime.
Maples explained how at the hospital doctors removed three fragments of the bullet from her daughter’s head showing just how close she’d come to being blinded.
Wichita Police Chief Gordon Ramsay reportedly told Maples in a phone conversation after ge watched the video “that what he witnessed was not only morally wrong but against their protocols and training.” He didn’t say why, she said.
Don't worry. I think he got the boot a few weeks ago.
Hope not. I found him entertaining.
Dog exists, cop present, must shoot dog.
Looks like a Bull Terrier — a Spuds McKenzie dog. Sweet pupper dogs with egg-shaped heads. My friend used to breed them.
Humblegunner is NOT banned.
Thanks. I was wondering if Pit Bull was the type.
I won’t say what I want to say..about these type of cops.
“At that point, communities will realize this whole cop thing has gotten out of hand.”
No, at that point our feminized country will call for more gun control.
My brother, God rest his soul, loved dogs. If he saw a cop shoot his dog he probably would have lost his mind. My brother as far as his dogs were concerned wasn’t a rare type. Some cop is gonna get himself killed shooting a barking dog.
Well, he hasn’t posted for 3 weeks which is unusual for him. Maybe on VaCa.
It’s the current police policy now, shoot the family dog first then figure out what is going on.
The dog acted properly in charging at the cops. The dog was acting in legitimate self-defense against an unjust aggressor. The cop is responsible for whatever happens when he shoots the gun.
The reason for the call is irrelevant. The kids were not holding a gun.
Reason NOT to call the cops.
See. This time-honored tradition of cops shooting dogs whenever there is a domestic disturbance or some other reason to come to a residence was bound to eventually lead to a human becoming the victim of a cop’s aggression.
Affirmative action hire.
Yeah, I don’t think he has posted in about 3 weeks. Maybe he is just taking a break.
Maybe he grew tired of the snowflakes here.
He’s taking a break from the snowflakes.
The audio is very telling, what a lying SOB. “You knockin’ her out?” “GET OFF THE AIR!” They were all in on covering up what this idiot with a badge just did. Guy just shoots a girl and is marching around the yard shining a flashlight in everybody’s face, you can hear the dad crying and screaming please let me see my daughter they just shot my daughter, that would be the man who was earlier suicidal. I’m sure that helped his state of mind. What a crop of assholes and not just the PERP which is the cop.
Who there, fella! You really ought to post a full retraction of your outrageous statement. If you ever get in trouble involving violence, it ought to and probably will be used against you.
It is one thing to decry the wanton killing of pets, but to declare that you will murder anyone who kills a pet of yours is well beyond the pale of reason. Get it yet?
In some circles, your comment would be grounds for an intervention..... Maybe it ought to.
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