Posted on 05/07/2008 6:09:50 AM PDT by PittsburghAfterDark
A Knoxville man shot and killed a Pittsburgh police dog Tuesday before the canine's handler returned fire, killing the man in what city police Chief Nate Harper called "an unfortunate" but justifiable action. The shooting outraged and angered the family of the 19-year-old man, Justin Jackson. He was pronounced dead by a passing paramedic almost immediately after the shooting that occurred at 6:53 p.m. in front of the UPMC facility on Arlington Avenue on the border of Knoxville and Mt. Oliver.
Harper said the dog's handler ordered the canine -- a 6-year-old German shepherd named Aulf -- to attack after Jackson pulled a gun from under his shirt. Both the officer, an eight-year-veteran Harper did not identify, and Jackson fired several shots, the chief said.
"They shot my son in the head. The officer told me, 'Our dog got shot so we shot him.' They killed my son over a dog," said Donald James Jackson of the West End.
"My 19-year-old son is lying there dead, shot in the head, execution-style. My son's brains are laying on the street. This is crazy. I'm going to do whatever I have to do, file charges against the officers, for my son. It's terrible, the mentality they have," Jackson said as he tried to comfort his wife.
"We are not going to let them get away with this!" Anna Jackson screamed. "They will pay for killing my son. They are going to pay for shooting my son over a dog!"
(Excerpt) Read more at pittsburghlive.com ...
One does hope they kept the video and sound for this one.
This moron was going to get shot on the street sooner or later anyway.
Did he fit a description that had been given? Was he known to the cops? I highly doubt the officers just decided to pick on this guy...
Another dead worthless thug!! GOOD!!
All these folks, even the bad ones, are saying it's a tough neighborhood so anything is believable.
Odds are good that most of the people they saw around there had guns, or could get one quickly.
I know a guy, he suffers from seizures. Jacka$$ brookline cop harrassed and arrested him and charged him with disorderly conduct because he found him passed out on the sidewalk after a seizure. AFTER the guy explained that he suffered from uncontrollable seizures several times a day.
Cop dragged him off to jail, they call the social services who of course confirmed the guys story.. they let him out of jail but to protect the cops a$$ because they knew he screwed up, they kept the charges on him. So the guy has had to go to court for basically having a seizure because the police cheif was more interested in protecting his newbie jacka$$ cop than he was in serving justice or doing his job.
I respect the law, but I don’t blindly accept their account of things.
This particular incident may be justified, just based on what has been reported in the media so far, it sure as hell doesn’t pass the first blush smell test.
You can’t sick a dog on a man, and then shoot him for defending himself.
If the guy pulled the gun first, then by all means sic the dog on him and shoot him. But you send a dog in at a guy in attack mode, and when he defends himself from the attacking animal and makes not move or threats toward any humans after the dog is down, and you shoot him.. that’s a problem.
Based on what I heard to date, I’m guessing more than one cop had a gun trained on the suspect before the dog was released. The suspect was ordered to show his hands.. he didn’t... they sent the dog in, he pulled out the gun and shot the charging dog, and when he did, one or more of the cops that already had him targeted pulled the trigger.
The investigation will happen, and I hope personally that the SBI or other organization outside of the Pittsburgh Police directly is involved. This may have been a clean shoot, it may not have been, but given the history of the whitewashing that has happened in the past here, I’d like to see an outside agency handle it.
I don't know what 'urban' areas you are talking about, but many are filled with some nasty damn dogs trained to kill. They protect drug dealer's stashes and they make the average Police dog look like Lassie.
These guys are very familiar with dogs.
"They will pay for killing my son. They are going to pay for shooting my son over a dog!There, much better."They will pay 'cause he was a good boy. He was turning his life around and was going back to school. He even had a job interview 'tomorrow'."
"They will pay 'cause my little angel didn't even own a gun. The police planted it on him. The police even shot their own dog!"
In these situations you could do a 'Jason Blair' and it would be appropriate. It's always the same crap. The ONLY shock here is that this mutt had two parents. Usually it's a grandma or aunt.
Twenty years ago the argument that it was only a dog compared to a human might have garnered some sympathy. In today’s world people care a great deal more about a dog than a human being.
That is an anti-survival instinct. While you're shooting at the dog, the cops are going to be shooting at you. Your chances in that fight are pretty damn slim.
If a police dog ever comes at you, you put your arms in the air, don't try to run, and don't offer any resistance, and the dog will not bite you. That is how they are trained.
What if the cop came at him with a tazer? It seems if I read of a tazer death about once a week nowadays. Hear of any deaths from police dog attacks?
As a matter of fact, yes, he was innately a criminal. Pennsylvania is very lenient on the right to carry. Most any adult without a criminal record can get a CC permit. This guy was under age and not eligible for CC. He was a criminal simply for possessing a handgun -- you have to be 21 years old.
He was a gang banger and it ain't hard for the cops to id them.
He was pronounced dead by a passing paramedic
I didn’t know that paramedics had the authority to pronounce anyone dead! In Illinois it has to be a physician or a Coroner.
Exactly. Regardless of others’ opinions on whether or not the dog should have counted as an LEO, he was still firing a gun in the general direction of the officers on the scene, and as far as I’m concerned that’s plenty of cause for the officers to have shot him - how were they to know he was actually intending to shoot the dog, and it didn’t just get in the way, or he missed and shot it instead of the officer he was aiming for, or something like that? In general, pointing, and especially firing, a gun in the direction of an LEO is probably the stupidest thing this guy could’ve done, and basically asking to be shot.
Exactly. Regardless of others’ opinions on whether or not the dog should have counted as an LEO, he was still firing a gun in the general direction of the officers on the scene, and as far as I’m concerned that’s plenty of cause for the officers to have shot him - how were they to know he was actually intending to shoot the dog, and it didn’t just get in the way, or he missed and shot it instead of the officer he was aiming for, or something like that? In general, pointing, and especially firing, a gun in the direction of an LEO is probably the stupidest thing this guy could’ve done, and basically asking to be shot.
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