Cop Gets Teeny-Tiny Pay Cut for Shooting This Pup to Death


And that might be the only disciplinary action Officer David Kelley faces after he gunned down Arfee, a 2-year-old pup, in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
Author: Shane Dixon Kavanaugh
An Idaho cop who gunned down an adorable dog, claiming he was a vicious pit bull, still has his badge and a weapon but is earning a little less cash on the beat each week.
Coeur d’Alene Police Officer David Kelley had his hourly pay slashed by $3.15 to $31.02 on Oct. 1, nearly three months after the veteran cop shot and killed Arfee, a 2-year-old black Lab, while investigating a suspicious vehicle.
The seemingly senseless slaying received national attention and prompted protests and two official reviews of the incident—each finding that Kelley violated his department’s deadly force policies. But as calls for Kelley’s resignation intensified over the summer, the department remained silent on what disciplinary action, if any, the officer would face.  “The dog was aggressively barking and growling and its mouth was within inches of my face,” Officer David Kelley recalled before shooting Arfee, a 2-year-old black Lab, in the chest. “I had the split second thought that this dog is going to bite me."
The 10 percent pay cut appears to be the full extent of Kelley’s punishment and was revealed only after the Coeur d’Alene Press, the area’s daily newspaper, filed a freedom of information request. When the paper asked Coeur d’Alene Police Chief Lee White about the wage reduction, the top cop was characteristically dismissive.
“Are you still beating that dead horse?” White told the Press, before saying he was prohibited from discussing employee discipline.
The incident happened on July 9, when the officer and his partner had walked up to a van belonging to Arfee’s owner after a caller reported a suspicious vehicle in the area. Kelley approached the van, which matched the caller’s description, with his gun drawn. Inside was the dog, which at the sight of the officer tried to stick his head out a cracked window.
“The dog was aggressively barking and growling, and its mouth was within inches of my face,” Kelley recalled in a police report. “I had the split second thought that this dog is going to bite me.”
Spooked, Kelley fired a single shot into the poor pup’s chest. Mortally wounded, Arfee scampered to the back of the van and died. Unable to locate Arfee’s owner, Craig Jones, the officers then removed the dog’s body from the vehicle.
Jones would later return from a having coffee to find his window shot out, a note on his windshield and a bunch of blood in his van. But there was no Arfee, who was mistakenly identified as a pit bull by authorities in the following weeks. “It crushes me know the way he died,” Jones later told KXLY. “It’s a savage thing.”
As outrage grew and more than 2,000 people joined a Facebook group called Justice for Arfee to demand accountability for the incident, White remained conciliatory.
“This event has shaken confidence in our police department,” he said in September. “But the relationship between our community and our department will ultimately be strengthened as a direct result of how we respond to the situation.”
That’s yet to happen.

On Tuesday, attorneys for Jones filed a $350,000 lawsuit against the city of Coeur d’Alene.