Animal
lovers protest Bronx cop’s dog shooting outside NYPD stationhouse
BY DANNY LEWIS, LEONARD GREENE
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
No justice, no pooch.
Animal lovers gathered across the
street from a Bronx police stationhouse Sunday to protest the death of a dog
shot by an officer answering a domestic dispute call.
Cops from the 46th Precinct
stationhouse on Ryer Ave. were responding to a call from an E. 183rd St. Bronx
apartment building on Feb. 13 when Officer Ruben Cuesta fired a single shot
into the pit bull’s skull as the dog scampered about in the hallway.
Video of the shooting showed the
wounded dog named Spike still wagging his tail before he died.
“If you are afraid of a dog, I
hate to tell you, you’re in the wrong line of work,” said Rob Becerra, a
filmmaker and animal-rights activist from Long Island, who organized the
protest.
“Shooting a dog is a last
resort,” Becerra said.
“They need to utilize pepper
spray. God forbid that cop missed, he could’ve shot someone.”
Chanting slogans like “Tail
wagging, don’t shoot,” “Paws up, don’t shoot” and “Justice for Spike,” the
dozen protesters called on the NYPD to implement training to teach cops how to
react to situations involving dogs without using a gun.
Meanwhile, Bronx neighbor Marie
Palladino, 65, said she also holds the owner responsible for Spike’s death.
“She had ample opportunity to get
the dog,” she said.
Palladino, an animal lover who
helps rescue and find new homes for dogs, said the NYPD should be trained in
canine body language to figure out whether a dog is being threatening.
“I want the officers to be more
educated in dog body language, pit bulls especially,” Palladino said.
Police Commissioner Bill Bratton
said Cuesta, 28, would have to “justify what was going through his mind at that
particular time.”
A surveillance video the Daily
News acquired shows Cuesta backing away from Spike, then shooting the dog from
a few feet away as he slowly approached, wagging his tail.
‘Body slam’ cop sparks fury after
shocking Texas schoolgirl arrest (VIDEO)
Mobile phone footage of a Texas
police officer picking up a 12-year-old girl and slamming her onto a concrete
floor has emerged, sparking a probe by San Antonio school authorities.
Identified as officer Joshua Kehm
of Rhodes Middle School by the San Antonio Express, the cop has been placed on
paid leave after appearing to violently intervene in a schoolyard dispute
between two children.
Struggling to restrain 6th grader
Janissa Valdez, who was reportedly involved in an argument with a peer, Kehm
can be seen to slam her to the ground with force.
As the district police officer
cuffs the dazed girl, shocked students can be heard asking if she is okay after
apparently landing on her face.
“This video is very concerning,
and we are working to get all of the details,” Leslie Price, San Antonio
Independent School District spokesperson, told local media.
“We certainly want to understand
what all occurred, and we are not going to tolerate excessive force in our
district.”
The police smackdown happened on
March 29. The girl’s mother has said her daughter doesn’t remember the arrest
as she was knocked out by the alarming incident.
“Supposedly he was threatened by
her that she kicked him, but in the video her legs never went up,” Gloria
Valdez told Kens 5 Eyewitness News.
“She was, I guess, unconscious.
She doesn’t remember being arrested with handcuffs… [she’s] bruised because of
how she was hit on the cement.”
This isn’t the first time a Texan
cop has hit the headlines over apparent rough handling of a juvenile.
In June 2015, another officer,
Eric Casebolt, resigned after he was filmed pulling his gun on a group of black
teenagers in McKinney.
His lawyer said two earlier
suicide calls had contributed to his emotional state, which saw him force a
14-year-old girl to the ground and perform a ludicrous barrel roll.
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