Quote:
Originally posted by browna@Jun 9 2005, 06:23 PM
All depends on the timeline of how long this took, but I think its overkill.
a)It doesn't sound like this was more then a couple minutes if that, since the dog got out, no sounds of a struggle
b)It seemed to be still in the owners yard within ear shot of the owner...
c)There are strangers that let the dog out, which I am sure excited it, and maybe caused the dog to jump up
If it was only a matter of a minute, and it was only in the yard, the cop that fired the shots could've a)told the owner to restrian the dog
b)ran inside where the owner could handle his dog better
Since this wasn't a call about the dog, the police should've used a little more discretion then firing away.
Just because you have a gun, doesn't mean you have to use it in a case like this....not trying to get into "cops have a big ego" debate, but by running back into the house when a dog takes a jump at you, doesn't make you a *$#@!...especially if the only alternative (in your mind) is to pull out your gun and shoot it.
Given the fact that this happened so quickly, and within earshot of the owner, makes me believe that there were other options.
Other then the already mentioned alerting of the other cops/owner to restrian the dog so quickly, or running inside, where was the billy club to bonk it across the nose (and then going into the house to alert the owner)? Firing that gun into the air would've scared pup shinguardless too.
Some cops go 20 year without firing guns, this guy seems a little trigger happy, and its too bad for the owner and the pup.
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Well let me paint a different scenario for you:
The cops goes in and talk to the guy, tells the guy to keep the dog restrained, then the shooting cop goes back out while the other cop talks to the guy. The shooting cop is assuming that the dog is safely restrained. All of a sudden the dog jumps out the door and may or may not have barked in an overly-excited manner. Right now if I'm the cop the first thing that goes thru my mind is:
"oh shinguard, isnt this dog supposed to be inside? what happened in there? Is my partner alright?"
Now while all this goes thru my head in that split second, the dog leaps at me, natural reflex makes me pull out the only self-defence weapon I have and I fire one shot, the dog is down but not out, to put it out of suffering another shot is needed...
There's always two sides to any stories, some people pick one side and some pick the other...The truth will likely never be known in this case.