Officer David Kelley said he
‘was scared’ when shot and killed a black Labrador that poked his head out the
window of a white van while the cop was investigating a man possibly luring
children. External and internal investigators agree that Kelley violated the
Coeur d’Alene Police Department's deadly force policy in shooting the dog.
BY NICOLE HENSLEY
An Idaho cop who shot and
killed Arfee the dog feared the black Labrador was going to bite his face.
But both an internal and
external review found that Officer David Kelley violated Coeur d’Alene Police
Department’s deadly force policies when he shot the dog while investigating a
suspicious vehicle July 9.
At a Friday morning press
conference, Police Chief Lee White would not confirm if Kelley was still
employed by the city and declined to elaborate on any disciplinary action the
officer might face.
The seven-year veteran of the
Coeur d’Alene force and his partner were dispatched to a parking lot behind the
Java coffee shop to look for a man in a white van allegedy enticing children.
Kelley approached the van
matching the caller's description with his gun drawn because he wanted the
“element of surprise,” but the van was empty of offenders. It was only Arfee
that spooked him.
“The dog was aggressively
barking and growling and its mouth was within inches of my face,” Kelley wrote
in a police report. “I had the split second thought that this dog is going to
... bite me immediately.”
The officer admits he “was
scared,” but before he could alert his partner on the other side of the van, he
fired one shot at the dog as it tried to leap out of a partially open window on
the driver’s side.
Instead, Arfee died with a
whimper after scampering toward the back of the van as its owner, Craig Jones,
of Colorado, was having breakfast inside the restaurant.
The shooting was never caught
on the officer’s body camera.
“I saw insufficient reasons why Officer Kelley
chose not to announce his presence or knock on the van to elicit a response in
order to clear the van,” wrote Robert Bragg Jr., of the Washington State
Criminal Justice Training Center.
Kelley claims he stayed at the
van for a half-hour waiting for the dog’s owner to come back. But when Jones
wrapped up his meal, he found his window shot out, a note on his windshield and
a lot of blood, but no Arfee.
The shooting also sparked
controversy that the police department mistakenly identified the dog as a
vicious pit bull in initial reports to the media.
In another police report, the
dog was described as a “black male dog, possibly Pit Bull or Pit Bull mix dog.”
It took nearly two months to
complete the internal and external investigation, to the community’s dismay. In
the meantime, a Facebook page called “Justice for Arfee” was created to
document the progress.
“I think everyone was
frustrated on the amount of time for the investigation to get out, including
the officer,” White said at the press conference. “But frankly, commenting on
this case before it was completely vetted out would have been premature.”
Jones sought legal counsel
after the shooting, but the city of Coeur d’Alene has not offered any
compensation in Arfee’s death. They have, however, offered to buy the white van
that his dog died in once the police investigation is over.
The dog’s remains have since
been returned to Jones.
