Off-Duty Tulsa cop shoots, kills neighborhood dog
TULSA - An off-duty Tulsa
police officer shot and killed a neighborhood dog Thursday night.
The shooting happened close to
5 p.m. in the 6900 block of East 18th Street.
According to Tulsa Police
Department Public Information Officer Leland Ashley, the unnamed off-duty
officer felt threatened after the dog growled at him and his dog. He says the
off-duty cop, whom he referred to as a citizen, feared for his life and pulled
the trigger as a means of protection.
The dog, 5-year-old Titus,
escaped through his the backyard fence seconds before the shooting, according
to owner Sarah Slane.
Titus, a pit bull-terrier mix,
weighed 75 pounds and escaped once before, according to Slane.
She says that within seconds of
letting Titus out to roam the backyard, she heard two gunshots.
"He literally let him out,
shut the door, heard the gunfire like not even three seconds. It was like boom,
boom," Slane described.
Neighbor Grant Holm says he
witnessed the shooting. According to Holm, the off-duty officer fired two shots
within 20 or 30 seconds of the encounter between Titus and the off-duty
officer's dog.
"They were sniffing each
other and the man pulled his dog back and his hind legs didn't move. So it
reared up and the other dog moved forward and the man reached back behind him
and pulled out a silver revolver, bent down and shot the dog," Holm said.
Holm says close to a dozen children and dozen
adults witnessed the shooting.
"He never identified
himself to any of us as a police officer, and after the second shot, people
were grabbing their kids, running for their homes," he recalled.
Officer Ashley says the
off-duty officer fired his personal weapon, not a police-issued one.
He says that any person
licensed to carry a concealed weapon who feels their life is being threatened
has the right to protect him or herself, even if that means using deadly force.
Sarah and boyfriend Nick Blazek
say they plan to file a report with internal affairs and want an investigation.
"To go from, oh this dog
is sniffing, to not asking anyone if it's their animal to then shooting it down
with children, who would ever allow somebody like that to have that much
control?" Slane asked.
The off-duty officer, whose
name Ofc. Ashley wouldn't release, does not face criminal charges.(Then what the fuck is the reporter there for? Talk to the neighbors, get the name, it's called leg work)
2NEWS submitted an open records
request with the Tulsa Police Department for a copy of the police report from
the shooting, but that request was not answered at the time of this story.
