Family says police killed dog for no reason

Yizuman

Not a JW story, but nonetheless it made me sick when this came out this week.

Yizuman

Cassiline

While stopping for gas in Tennessee, James Smoak accidentally left his wallet on the roof of the car. As they drove away the wallet flew off the car and nearby motorists suspected the Smoaks had committed a robbery. ~~From article

What am I missing? Why would the nearby motorists think he had committed a robbery, because his wallet fell off the car? It seems as if something is missing from the events listed in the article. If there are no events missing, some people amaze me with their nosiness and assumptions, enough so to lead to this family being arrested and their dog being killed.

Edited by - cassiline on 11 January 2003 23:42:16

Robdar

I agree with Cassi, something seems to be missing in this story. It will be interesting to see how this turns out.

Robyn

Yizuman

What's missing is that over 400 dollars flew out of the wallet and the motorist called the police stating that money flew out of the car as they pulled out of the gas station.

So the motorist saw all the money flying around the road, so the motorist called 911 on the cell phone and I dunno what happened exactly during that time since the news wasn't very pacific about it. But somewhere along the line, the cops was told a robbery had occured.

But nonetheless, the cop who killed the dog, according to the videotape of the incident, it took the cop exactly 3 seconds to kill the dog right after the dog jumped out of the war and approached the cop while wagging his tail. The cop shot the dog it's in face with his shotgun at point blank range, killing the dog instantly.

Gonna look for more links on the story...

Yizuman

reporter

the dog was a pit bull...nice family pet!

reporter

I just re-read that CNN story and nowhere does it mention pit bull. Trust me, it was a pit bull. Bred for danger.

Figures, honest intelligent people ~~always~~ refer to ~~CNN as an authoritative~~ news ~~source~~.

Edited by - reporter on 11 January 2003 23:59:53

Trauma_Hound

This is how I heard it on the news, someone called 911, reported money flowing out from a car, dispatch was the one that assumed it was a robbery, and told the police that, also the dog was not a pit bull, but a bull dog-boxer mix, big difference. Here's what should happen, since it was obviously unlawful detainment, nevermind the lawsuits, at least someone should get fired. Nice ending to a vacation for this family.

Edited by - Trauma_Hound on 12 January 2003 0:4:25

Yizuman

Here's all the following links I found that may help you get a better picture of what happened.

Police Shoot Family's Dog During Stop
http://www.austin360.com/aas/news/ap/ap_story.html/National/AP.V1236.AP-Dog-Shot.html

Police Shoot Family's Pet Dog During Mistaken Stop (With Video)
http://www.local6.com/orlpn/news/stories/news-187947320030109-110148.html

Lawsuit Planned After Police Shoot Dog
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20030109_2286.html

Police Shoot Family's Dog During Stop
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-dog-shot0109jan08,0,4736079.story?coll=sns-ap-nation-headlines

Dog's blood stains city's name
http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/state/article/0,1406,KNS_348_1666555,00.html

Lawsuit likely in dog's death
http://newsobserver.com/news/story/2087617p-1994567c.html

One final piece

Governor apologizes to family for dog shooting
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/South/01/10/dog.shot.ap/index.html

Hope this helps clear up any confusion.

Yizuman

reporter

From: http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/local_news/article/0,1406,KNS_347_1660897,00.html

The video shows Hall rapidly raising his shotgun and firing when the dog's head was only a foot or so from the gun's muzzle, leaving the stunned family sobbing and screaming. The slain dog, named Patton, was part pit bull.

From: http://www.unknownnews.net/cache42.html

"Unfortunately, during the THP's process of gaining control of the situation, a very rare thing occurred. The Smoaks had been traveling with family dogs, and one of them got loose. It appeared to be a pit bull, and as it exited the car, it clearly approached one of our officers in a threatening manner. Our officer first tried to call the dog down, but after it kept approaching aggressively and started to circle him, the officer took the only action he could to protect himself and gain control of the situation.

From: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/819436/posts?page=22

As the troopers were putting the family members inside the patrol car, one of the Smoak family dogs, a boxer-bulldog mix named Patton, came out of the car and headed toward one of the Cookeville officers who were assisting the THP troopers.

Well, whatever it was, it APPEARED to the officer to be part pit bull, even if the actual breed was boxer/bulldog (although few other accounts corroberate this). Whose life is more important, the officer's or the dog's? (Animal rights activists excluded). The officer needs to make split-second decisions in certain situations.

reporter

Another account here: http://newsobserver.com/news/story/2087617p-1994567c.html

"I don't ever want to see this happen to anybody else. That's why we can't let this go away," said James Smoak of Saluda, N.C., who owned the 1 1/2-year-old pit bull-boxer mix named Patton.

Unfortunately, the story really seems to be skewed as police brutality, and a pending lawsuit may be filed in the Litigious States of America because of this. If the officer was short on apology at the scene, they more than made up for it later in press releases. An officer doesn't have time to judge a breed or ask the dog what breed he is when it's lunging at him or seems threatening.

Family says police killed dog for no reason

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