Animal
Hearing Will Determine If Man Who Lost His Wife Will Also Lose His Dog Too
By Jared Keever
An Iowa man whose wife was
fatally shot by a police officer in front of him last month now stands to lose
his dog as well.
Burlington, Iowa, newspaper,
The Hawk Eye, reports police there have scheduled an animal hearing board to
convene Feb. 25 to determine if the dog is vicious and decide its fate.
Police believe the dog may have
been the catalyst for the apparent accidental shooting on Jan. 6 that left
34-year-old Autumn Steele dead.
The Des Moines Register
reported police visited Steele’s home that day in response to a domestic
disturbance call. Police found Steele and her husband, Gabriel Steele, outside,
in front of their home when they arrived.
Initial reports indicate that
as Burlington Police Officer Jesse Hill was working to resolve the conflict
between the couple, the family dog, Sammy, jumped on the officer.
A
neighbor, Ed Ranck, said it appeared as though the German Shepherd startled the
officer who in turn tried to shoot the animal.
Investigators
believe Hill fired two shots, one of which struck Autumn Steele in the torso.
She was taken to a nearby hospital and later died from the wound.
“It appeared he was shooting at
the dog when (the officer) fell to the ground. It’s my belief the woman was
shot accidentally,” said another witness quoted by The Free Thought Project.
Hill was later treated for a
single dog bite. Animal control workers took the dog from the home.
Burlington Police Maj. Dennis
Kramer told The Hawk Eye that the hearing for the dog is in compliance with the
law.
“We are following city
ordinance concerning dog bites,” he said. “The dog attacked a person (Hill),
off its property, on the sidewalk. Therefore, our animal control officer was
notified.”
Kramer indicated there had been
other reports that the dog had shown aggression to postal carriers and other
police officers in the past.
If Sammy is declared a vicious
dog by the five-person board he will be euthanized.
A Change.org has been started
urging the animal hearing board to release Sammy back to the family.
The Iowa Division of Criminal
Investigation is still investigating the Jan. 6 shooting. Hill remains on
administrative leave pending the outcome of that investigation.
Probation
Office Shoots and Kills Dog After Allegedly Pushing the Door Open to Let Him
Out
Probation officer was looking
for someone who wasn't at the home. Resident says she tried to keep the dog
from running outside but the officer prevented her.
Ed Krayewski|
KA probation officer in Kern
County, California was looking to serve a felony warrant on Faustino Ponce when
he tried to push his way into the home of Monica Montoya, where he says he was
told Ponce was staying. Montoya says she opened the door to talk to the
probation officer but tried to close it again when her dog, a five year old
German shepherd chow chow mix named Buddy, got too close. Because the probation
officer tried to push the door open, she says, Buddy was able to run out into
the front yard. That's when the probation officer feared for his safety and
fired a single shot at Buddy, killing him.
KBAK in Bakersfield reports:
"I'm not against probation
or police, at all, but I think that they could use different tactics to get him
down," [Montoya] said. "He wasn't just our dog, he was like my son,
my family. He'd been through everything with us."
Montoya claims her dog's death
is unjustified, because the wanted man had never been inside her home.
Chief probation officer T.R.
Merickle said he can relate to why the Montoya family is upset.
"I know how much a dog can
be a part of the family. I'm a dog owner, I understand that. It's just very
unfortunate," he said.
Merickle said his officers are
sent into unpredictable situations and trained to make split-second decisions.
"Since AB 109, the
probation department has also had to supervise people that are directly
released from prison. That raises a different type of population than we've
ever had in the past; and it's raised that level of seriousness," he said.
The county probation office
says it won't talk about the case specifically since it's under investigation,
but Merickle insists probation officers aren't just responsible for protecting
themselves in dangerous situations but the community too.
AB109 (and AB117) are public
safety "realignment" laws meant to reduce the prison population by
keeping "low-level" inmates out of the system.
You
want an answer? Here’s you’re answer: Because he’s a punk and because he can
and will get away with shooting your dog. There’s your answer
Fort
Worth officer shoots dog, family demands answers
Lauren Zakalik,
FORT WORTH — Robin Ollar
Fairchild wants to remember her dog, Shadow, as the sweet, playful pooch she
watches now on cell phone videos. But it's the image of her dog clinging to
life she can't get out of her head.
"When I walked in, I
wasn't expecting to see what I saw," she recalls of yesterday's trip to
the vet's office. "My baby. My child. Sitting there on a table with a
gunshot wound."
Shadow, a seven-year-old pit
bull/Rhodesian Ridgeback mix, was shot by Fort Worth police Thursday morning.
Police say they were investigating a call about a homeless camp and a loose pit
bull in the woods near Loop 820 and Heron Drive.
Fairchild's ex-husband, Lonnie
Reynolds, was camping in a tent with Shadow when they heard a noise that
startled them.
And he jumped out the
door," he says of Shadow, "and as soon as he jumped out the door I
heard 'hold your dog'… boom!"
That was the sound of Shadow
getting shot once in the shoulder.
In a press release, police say
they'd announced themselves first and they shot Shadow because he charged at
officers, who feared for their safety. The former couple, who raised Shadow
since he was five weeks old, don't buy it.
They've now filed a complaint
against Fort Worth PD, which is also conducting its own investigation. A
statement from the police department released Friday states that the dog
charged toward the officers, and that those officers felt "in fear of their
safety." The statement described the dog as an "aggressive
animal."
There is lapel camera video of
the incident, which police say they will release when the investigation is
complete. They also say it supports officers' account of events.
The family hasn't seen it yet
but say Shadow didn't have a chance; that police were feet away from the tent
when he came out.
As for Shadow, his injuries
were so bad, he had to be put down.
"I feel like he was shot
for no reason," Fairchild says.
Now all they have are memories
and questions, neither of which are very comforting at this moment.
