Shocking video draws reactions from around globe
DREW ZAHN
When Officer Tarek Hassani responded to a call of dogs running
wildly through a Filer, Idaho, neighborhood on Feb. 8, a pair of Labradors –
one yellow, one brown – barked and bounded around him like agitated guard dogs.
The video camera on Hassani’s squad car reveals the stunning
events that happened next.
The dogs can be heard barking and growling. They leap around the
police officer. The cop draws his gun. He kicks out wildly at the dogs, only
stirring them up more. Then, as he makes his way around a vehicle in the
driveway, Officer Hassani pulls the trigger.
The brown Lab’s body is slammed to the ground. The barking
suddenly turns to whining and whimpering, as the dog named “Hooch” drags its
broken body out of the camera’s view.
The dash-cam video has since created an international stir, with
hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube and tens of thousands of people on
Facebook calling for Hassani to be fired for what they say was excessive force
used against dogs that weren’t actually threatening or attacking the officer.
Jon Alexander of Idaho’s Twin Falls Times-News was the first to
report on the video, writing in his original article, “A dog is dead, and its
owner is alleging trigger-happy police work.”
“Sure enough, that video went viral,” Alexander wrote in a
subsequent editorial. “It’s gritty, brutal and powerful. Hassani’s .45 caliber
hollow-point drives the poor animal into the ground as if it was hit with a
sledge hammer. You watch the dog slink away to its death.”
Police officers who shoot dogs: Journalist tracks incidents of
gratuitous pet deaths around the country
The dashcam video of the shooting can be seen below (Editor’s
note: The following video contains graphic, real violence and foul language and
may be disturbing to some viewers): under investigation for questionable
discharge of a firearm.
Following a high-speed chase of a shooting suspect in May 2010,
Hassani approached the suspect’s stopped vehicle, but the tinted glass
obstructed his view of the interior. Hassani then fired through the driver’s
side front window, wounding the suspect in the head.
Three months later, Ada County Prosecutor Greg Bower and Deputy
Prosecutor Shawna Dunn absolved Hassani of any wrongdoing following an independent
investigation of the events.
“(Hassani’s) actions were justifiable,” Dunn said at the time.
Filer Police Chief Tim Reeves said at the time he was happy that
Ada County prosecutors agreed with his department’s findings in the case.
Rick Clubb is the owner of Hooch, the 7-year-old Lab Hassani
killed. Clubb suffers from Parkinson’s disease and said Hooch had been his
service dog for two years.
Clubb told the Times-News that his son’s 9th birthday party was
wrapping up about 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 8 and that the dogs, which are normally let
out in a fenced area in the back yard, escaped out the front door while guests
were coming and going.
“We want (Hassani) fired,” Clubb told the newspaper “He had other
options. He didn’t have to kill my dog.
“It was right outside my son’s bedroom,” he continued. “What if
[the bullet] had ricocheted through the window?”
Police, however, say the dogs had been running loose earlier in
the day and previous attempts to find them proved unsuccessful.
Police Chief Reeves again came to Hassani’s defense, telling the
Times-News his officer had no choice but to put the Lab down after it kept
taking an aggressive posture.
Hassani’s motive in shooting the animal remains a bit mysterious.
On one hand, the dogs can be heard and seen barking and growling at the
officer; but on the other hand, the video doesn’t show the dog making any
attempt to attack him.
Some comments posted on Alexander’s online articles come from
people who claim to be locals with first-hand knowledge of Hassani as a local bully
with a badge.
Others have reported to be neighbors of Hassani’s who spoke highly
of his character.
Pamela Geller of the Freedom Defense Initiative and the Atlas
Shrugs blog speculated Hassani may be a Muslim name and suggested Islam is
prone to reviling canines.
The video itself contains audio of Hassani speaking with Clubb
immediately after the shooting, explaining, “I am sorry I shot your dog. I love
dogs, but I am not going to be bit again. Like I said, sir, last time I ended
up in the E.R.”
Filer Mayor Rick Dunn told the Times-News the Nampa, Idaho, police
department has been hired to investigate the shooting, and Hassani has been
placed on administrative leave during the investigation.