A heartbroken woman is suing the city of St.
Clair Shores and police after officers shot her dog dead in November. The
encounter was filmed by the cops' dashboard camera.
BY PHILIP CAULFIELD
A heartbroken Michigan woman is suing her city
and police after officers shot her dog dead while it was loose in her neighborhood
in November.
Brittany Preston claimed the killing of her
beloved 18-month-old puppy, Lexie, amounted to an execution after one of the
cops was caught on his dashboard camera saying he'd "shoot the f----g
thing," FOX Detroit reported.
"The only thing I'm going do is shoot it.
I do not like dogs," one of the cops said during the Nov. 22 encounter.
Lexie, a 44-pound mix breed, got out of the St.
Clair Shores home Preston shares with her grandfather at about 7:15 a.m. and
was barking loudly, prompting a neighbor to call the cops.
Officers David Jacquemain and Jeremy Moskwa
arrived at the scene and spent several minutes trying to find the dog's owner
while the animal barked nearby, according to dash cam footage on YouTube.
In the video, one of the cops says, "Hey
hey" and then three shots are fired. The dog begins whining in pain.
"You saw that f--- thing come at me,
right?" one of the officers says.
"Absolutely," the other one says.
A few minutes later, an officer says they need
to "put it out of its misery" and a fourth shot is fired. The dog
whimpers again.
An animal control officer arrived later and
used a snare pole to corral the wounded pooch into a truck.
Preston's lawsuit said the dog sat in the truck
for 90 minutes and then died on the way to the hospital.
Police said the officers opened fire because
the dog charged them. An internal investigation earlier this year found no
wrongdoing.
Christopher Olson, Preston's attorney, said the
cops planned to kill the animal the whole time.
"The first thing that they said out of
their mouths was they don't like dogs; they don't do dogs; they're going to
shoot the dog anyway. And that's exactly what they did," Olson told FOX
Detroit.
"Then they shot the dog again, instead of
trying to take care of the dog, getting some care of the dog to prevent it from
dying … they made sure that the dog died," he added.
Preston's federal suit names as defendants
Jacquemain, Moskwa, animal control officer Tom Massey and the city of St. Clair
Shores. It seeks unspecified damages.
In a statement to FOX Detroit, St. Clair Shores
officials said they were saddened by the dog's death, but called Preston's suit
bogus.
"The complaint that was filed is filled
with innuendo, speculation and half-truths, and I have no doubt when it's held
up to the light of day, the truth will bear itself out in court," the
statement said.
