By Jay Dillon
An Ardmore family says a police
officer in the city shot and killed their pit bull after it escaped from their
yard last week. Police say the dog was aggressive and a nuisance and had to be
euthanized.
The family says their pit bull,
"Cali", was shot and killed by an Ardmore Police officer and an
animal control officer last week. FOX 25 filed an open records request with the
city for details relating the incident.
On March 19, Ardmore police say
they were called to a home in the 400 block of 15th Ave. NW in Ardmore around
9:30 AM to a report of a pit bull in the area. According to the report, the
caller told police the dog consistently ran loose in the area.
Officer Brice Woolly wrote in
his report that the dog was not aggressive towards the officers but was against
animal control and several residents in the area. Police say a USPS delivery
driver said he was confronted by a dog matching "Cali's" description
in January and she would not allow him to get out of his mail truck. A neighbor
approached the driver and said she knew the dog and took her home.
The officer said the dog was
wearing a collar but didn't have any tags. Animal control officers told police
they had tried to catch the dog multiple times and tried to discover who the
dog belonged to but were unable to do so.
The police report states
because of that reason, it was determined the dog would be euthanized.
Officer Woolly reported that he
used his assigned shotgun and fired one shot into the dog. He said the dog was
still breathing but was down when he instructed an animal control officer to
fire a .22 caliber into the dog.
About ten minutes after the dog
was put down, a female walked up and asked if the officers had her dog. She
described it to them and they said they had the dog but it was put down because
it "had been a continuing nuisance and [they] were unable to determine who
owned the dog."
The neighbor
Just after 2:00 PM on March 19,
the dog's owner came to the police department to talk with a supervisor.
According to the police report, she said that her neighbor watched the incident
happen.
On Friday, police called the
neighbor to discuss what happened when the dog was shot. The neighbor said
while he didn't see the shot, he heard it and the officer's reaction.
The neighbor said after Officer
Woolly shot the dog, he told the animal control officer "Did you see the
way it's collar flew up into the air when I blew it's head off? It was
awesome!" He said Woolly then bragged about another dog he shot with his
handgun a few days before.
The neighbor then asked the
officers if they shot his dog in his fence too. The animal control officer said
they shot that dog because it barked at the mailman, according to the neighbor.
When he went back into his
house, he heard another shot. He said he then walked back outside as the two
officers carried the dog away. He said he heard Officer Woolly tell the animal
control officer "we are just going to write this up in the report as the
dog tried to attack me and you and others in the neighborhood." The
neighbor told police it sounded as if he was coaching the animal control
officer on what to say so the stories match up.
The other shooting
FOX 25 filed a separate open
records request with the city for Officer Woolly's referenced incident.
On Friday, March 14, Officer
Woolly filed another report that states he shot a pit bull that residents had
said was aggressive towards children. The animal control officer said they had
received several calls about the dog in recent weeks.
The dog's owner was cited
several times but refused to show up for city court and would not sign
complaints about the dog being aggressive and loose. Officer Wolly wrote that
it was decided the dog would be put down because the owner would not catch it
or take responsibility for it.
He said he shot the dog twice
with his service pistol but it didn't kill the animal. He said he pulled the
trigger two more times before the dog was put down.
The owner of that dog was never
located.
Backlash
Since the March 19 incident, a
Facebook page called "Justice for Cali" was started with more than
2,000 likes and growing. A petition on Change.org was also started that says it
wants the officer to be relieved of his duties. So far, there are more than
16,000 signatures on the petition.
A courier for the USPS and the
animal control officer both gave police written statements about the dog,
indicating that it was violent and aggressive towards them.
Ardmore Police says the case
has been closed.
