Court Rules Cops Shooting Barking Dog During Drug Raid was "Reasonable."
WREG-TV
December 28, 2016
COURT RULES OFFICERS JUSTIFIED IN SHOOTING BARKING DOG DURING DRUG RAID
A police officer can shoot a dog if it barks or moves when the officer enters the home, under a new federal court ruling issued this month.
The ruling comes after police in Battle Creek, Michigan, shot two pit bulls while searching a home for evidence of drugs in 2013.
The dogs' owners, Mark and Cheryl Brown filed a lawsuit against the Battle Creek Police Department and the city, claiming that killing the dogs amounted to the unlawful seizure of property in violation of the Fourth Amendment.
The district court sided with the police officers and the Brown's filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
According to the lawsuit, Officer Cristolf Klein testified that when he entered the house, a large, brown pit bull jumped off the couch, aggressively barked at the officers and lunged at him.
Officer Klein stated that the first pit bull "had only moved a few inches" between the time he entered the residence and when he shot her, but he considered the movement to be a "lunge."
Klein stated that after he fired the first shot, "the dog moved away from the officers and towards the kitchen, then down the stairs and into the basement."
A smaller white pit bull had also gone down into the basement
"As the officers were descending the stairs to clear the basement, they noted that the first pit bull was at the bottom of the stairs," the lawsuit states.
"When the officers were halfway down the stairs, the first dog, who was at the bottom of the staircase, turned towards them and started barking again...From the staircase, Officer Klein fired two fatal rounds at the first pit bull," the lawsuit states.
"Klein testified that after he shot and killed the first dog, he noticed the second dog standing about halfway across the basement..The second dog was not moving towards the officers when they discovered her in the basement, but rather she was 'just standing there...barking," the lawsuit continues.
Klein fired two rounds at the second dog.
After being shot by Klein, the second dog ran to the back corner of the basement.
Then a second officer shot her because she was "moving."
More:
http://wreg.com/2016/12/28/federal-court-rules-police-can-shoot-a-dog-if-it-moves-or-barks-when-officers-enter-a-home/
(Neither Mark nor Cheryl Brown was a criminal suspect...But police obtained a warrant to search their residence because they had received reports that a man named Vincent Jones had been distributing cocaine and heroin from the home...The owner of the home was Cheryl Brown's mother, who had a child with Jones)
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