by Colin Campbell and Tim Swift
An Anne Arundel County police
officer shot and killed a family's dog Saturday while investigating a burglary
in Pasadena, officials said.
Police said the officer -- a
one-year veteran of the force who was not identified -- was canvassing a
neighborhood looking for witnesses around 4 p.m. Saturday. When the officer
went to a home in 900 block of Lombardee Circle, the dog -- a male Chesapeake
Bay Retriever named Vern -- "confronted" the officer in the front
yard, police said. The officer then fired his weapon twice, killing the dog,
police said.
Tim Reeves -- one of Vern's
owners -- said he had been in the basement of his Pasadena house setting up for
a Super Bowl party when his girlfriend called him from upstairs, saying she'd
seen a police officer in the front yard.
"I said to him 'How can I
help you, officer?'" Tim Reeves said. "He looked at me and said 'I
unloaded on your dog. Your dog attacked me, and I killed it.'"
His father, Michael Reeves, who
wore a denim jacket with a patch that read "Vern" on the chest, stood
in the driveway. He choked up as he described where the bullet casings were
found. The family has two other dogs, a Chesapeake Retriever named Jazmin and a
French Bulldog named Madeline.
"I just don't get
it," he said, walking inside and shaking his head.
The family said the officer
wanted to interview a neighbor and was walking across the front yards of homes
on the street when the shooting happened. The Reeves family was not involved in
the burglary investigation that brought the officer to their neighborhood. Vern
barked and ran toward the officer, prompting the shooting, the family said.
The police department promised
a full investigation and acknowledged that the shooting was a traumatic
incident for the family of the deceased dog.
Anne Arundel County Police
Chief Kevin Davis met with the Reeves family this weekend.
"My deepest condolences go
out to the family of Vern during this extremely difficult time," Davis
said in a statement.
Maryland has seen several
high-profile cases of law enforcement officers killing family pets in recent
years.
In August 2010, a federal
police officer Keith Elgin Shepherds shot and killed a Siberian husky he
claimed attacked his pet and was threatening him and his wife at a community
dog park in Severn. At first, Shepherds was only questioned by police, but
after community protests he was charged with animal cruelty and a weapons
violation. He was eventually fined and given probation before judgment.
In July 2008, a Prince George's
County SWAT team shot and killed two Labrador retrievers during a search of the
home of Berwyn Height's Mayor Cheye Calvo. Police mistakenly thought his wife
was involved in drug trafficking. That case garnered national attention.
Calvo was cleared of any
wrongdoing, and a lawsuit against Prince George's County was settled for an
undisclosed amount.
Tonya Reeves, Michael's wife
and Tim's mother, hopes the Anne Arundel County police department will
integrate more training for officers to teach them how to better handle such
situations.
Tonya Reeves said the
neighborhood is very dog and child-friendly. A park in the middle of the circle
hosts touch football games in the spring and summer, she said.
"You expect to lose your
pet," she said. "You know there's a good chance you'll outlive him.
You always know something might happen."
But "it's
devastating," she said. "He was a member of our family," she
said. "It's no different from it being a person."
cmcampbell@baltsun.com
timswift@baltsun.com ___
