BY DEANNA BOYD
FORT WORTH — A Fort Worth
police deputy chief who fatally shot a German shepherd after the dog reportedly
mauled his cat to death was arrested Monday on a warrant accusing him of
cruelty to an animal.
Deputy Chief Kenneth Flynn, who
was off duty when he shot the dog named Bentley, surrendered at the Tarrant
County Jail Monday night and was immediately released on a $1,000 bond.
A woman present during the
dog’s shooting said she’s upset that Fort Worth officers who initially
responded to her 911 call didn’t make a police report.
The woman, who asked not to be
identified for fear of retaliation, said the investigation into the deputy
chief’s conduct did not begin until after she called back three hours after the
shooting and asked dispatchers for a report number, only to learn that the
officers had not made one.
“I want to understand why they
didn’t file that report,” the woman said in a recent interview with the
Star-Telegram. “Were they intimidated by this man’s rank?”
The shooting occurred on the
evening of Sept. 29 in the 1300 block of Oak Grove Road East, not far from
Flynn’s home.
Monday night, Robert Rogers,
Flynn’s attorney, said: “Deputy Chief Flynn has protected and served this
community for over 30 years. His actions against a dangerous dog that had just
mauled his pet cat were completely legal in Texas. This arrest reeks of
politics, not a well thought out application of Texas law.”
But Bentley’s owner, who asked
to be identified only by his first name, Bryan, said Monday night that Bentley
was a 2-year-old who was never aggressive to humans. He said Bentley and his
9-year-old pit bull, B.B., escaped from his enclosed back yard after a roommate
let them out Monday morning, not realizing that the gate had accidentally been
left unlatched.
“He was not vicious or
dangerous. He was a puppy,” Bryan said. “He would be more likely to run up and
lick you and run away than do anything else. He was just a big teddy bear.”
Fort Worth police officials
confirmed last week that Flynn, who has been with the department since 1984,
had been stripped of his gun and badge and placed on desk duty while under
investigation for shooting the dog.
On Monday, Cpl. Tracey Knight,
a police spokeswomen, said Flynn, 61, has now been placed on “detached duty,”
meaning he is also not allowed to go into the office and must check in daily
with a supervising assistant chief.
Police officials would not
comment Monday on whether the three officers are also under investigation for
not initially filing a police report on the shooting, nor would the officials
release the officers’ identities.
“This continues to be an open
investigation,” Knight said. “All aspects of this incident will be thoroughly
investigated by Internal Affairs detectives.”
Cruelty to an animal is a
state-jail felony punishable by up to two years in a state jail and a $10,000
fine.
The witness’ account
The woman said she was driving
home from work shortly before 6 p.m. Sept. 29 when she noticed a brown and
white pit bull roaming on the south side of Oak Grove East.
The woman said she turned
around her car, stopped and put her flashers on, to see if she could coax the
pit bull toward her.
By that time, a black SUV with
a side spotlight pulled into a nearby driveway and the driver got out.
She said the man started waving
her off.
“I don’t know who this guy is,”
she said. “He said, ‘I’m going to shoot the dog. He killed my cat,’ ” she
recalled. “I realized all of a sudden that he’s talking about the dog that is
closer to him ... a black German shepherd.”
The woman said the man then
pulled out a gun, which scared her, but also prompted her to try to talk him
out of his plan.
“Look, sir, I have dogs and
cats. I know it’s horrible thing to go through. I would be upset too,” she
said, retelling her conversation.
She said the man got back
inside his SUV, called her a “stupid” or “dumb b----,” then backed up to drive
away.
“The dog is trying to get
away,” she said. “The dog is not trying to attack anybody. He’s trying to get
away. He’s trying to go home.”
The woman, who had turned back
to the pit bull, heard four or five gunshots.
“He was down the road about
three-tenths of a mile when he fired the shots,” she said. “There were no other
vehicles around.”
The woman said she called 911,
describing the fleeing SUV and the man with a gun to dispatchers. She then
drove to the house closest to where the SUV had stopped, where she talked to
another woman who had witnessed the shooting.
The witness told her the German
shepherd had run off but believed it had been hit “because it yelped.”
“You’re not supposed to shoot
an animal unless it’s on your property and it’s endangering you or your
animal,” the woman said. “He was hunting [this dog] down. They were not on his
property. He was not being rational.”
A surprising discovery
The woman said three Fort Worth
officers and a Tarrant County sheriff’s deputy responded to her 911 call,
interviewed both women, then took off in search of the black SUV.
The deputy returned a few
minutes later to tell the women that Fort Worth police would be handling the
case because they had jurisdiction, she said.
“He said the officers has made
contact with the man. He works for Fort Worth PD … He said the dog killed his
cat and he did nothing wrong,” the woman said. “I said, ‘He fired shots, sir.
This is the city limits. He was not on his property.’ ”
About 9 p.m., concerned that
she had not heard from any Fort Worth officers, the woman said she called 911
again and asked dispatchers for the report number in regard to the shooting.
Dispatchers located her earlier
call to 911 but told the woman that no police report had been made.
“I said, ‘Sir, shots were fired
by this man,’ ” the woman said.
Surprised that no report had
been made, the woman said she expressed her concerns to a dispatch supervisor.
By midnight, a Fort Worth
lieutenant had left a message on the woman’s cellphone, asking for her to
return the call. They talked about 4 a.m. and later that morning, investigators
came to the woman’s house, interviewing her and asking her to pick the shooter
out of photo line-up.
“If I had not followed up, none
of this would have happened,” the woman said.
Pit bull returned
Bryan, a college student, said
he immediately began searching for his dogs after returning home Monday
afternoon and finding them missing.
“I went to six different dog
pounds and animal control locations looking for them but they weren’t there,”
Bryan said. “I looked all through Fort Worth, Crowley and Burleson.”
The woman said she later
learned that the German shepherd was found dead in the area the day after the
shooting, and its body was picked up by animal control. She said she kept the
pit bull at her house, posting signs in the neighborhood in an attempt to find
her owner.
On Wednesday, she got a phone
call from Bryan.
“I was actually on my way out
the door to search some more when one my roommates had called and said that he
saw a sign that said ‘found brown and white pit bull,’ ” Bryan said. “I called
the number.”
The woman informed him that the
pit bull was safe at her house. She said she then delivered the bad news about
his German shepherd.
“I said, I am sorry to tell
you, but he’s been shot dead by an off-duty officer,” she said.
Bryan said Bentley had killed
only small possums in the past.
“The neighborhood kids used to
ride him around like a pony,” Bryan said. “I’ve never seen him growl or bare
his teeth at anything.”
He said he doesn’t know whether
Bentley attacked and killed Flynn’s cat.
“I don’t know. I wasn’t there,”
Bryan said. “All I know is if I did what he did, I would be in jail right now.
“If the dog was in his yard and
actually killed his cat, then maybe he would have had the right to shoot it,”
Bryan said.
“But the fact that he chased
him down in his truck and shot him and drove away and didn’t report it, that
makes it a completely different thing.”
