Pot Bust Kills Dog

**Conde Koma** · Posted On: 5/10/2010 2:48pm

Just wanted to get your thoughts on this situation.

YouTube- Marijuana Raid Caught On Tape (Dogs Shot)

So, it looks like they got a tip from a neighbor that this guy might be a pot dealer, so they saddled up and went in. They shot his dogs (one was a pit, the other a corgi), and found a very small amount of weed.

To the LEOs or people with experience, do you guys know anything about this situation? I don't know how much the newscaster types know about this, but I'm wondering if any pieces are missing. Second, did everything follow procedure here? I'm not really familiar with SOP for this kind of stuff.

**KO'd N DOA** · Posted On: 5/10/2010 4:21pm

In my city, they did something like this in an early morning raid, for a search warrent, and because they carried on like this was a war zone, the guy thought is was home invaders and killed one cop and wonded another shooting his licensed gun through the door. His wife was shot.

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazett...535e6e&k=77394

He got off because police didn't follow procedure, they pretended they were SWAT - they were not.

**money** · Posted On: 5/10/2010 4:26pm

Before commenting I would really like to hear our LEO's perspective on this situation as well, this could be a very productive discussion.

Also, who the hell are the young turks? Everything I've seen from them has seemed very amateurish, ineloquent and overly-opinionated.

**Wounded Ronin** · Posted On: 5/10/2010 7:52pm

Well I'm glad that the male newscaster seemed to understand why it's necessary for the police to enter the house in force. Lots of people would have just got bent out of shape over the fact that they entered SWAT-style, and somehow believed that it would be better send beat cops in one at a time to waddle in one a time and get shot by a sociopathic dealer. Most people don't really have any grasp of violence whatsoever.

I do have a police procedure question though, and not about dogs.

I noticed they handcuffed the man, but they didn't the woman or the kid. Why not? I thought it was SWAT procedure to handcuff everyone. How did they know the woman wasn't going to pull a handgun out of her pants and shoot one of the officers in the back of the head if they didn't handcuff and search her?

My second question is will someone get in trouble for firing 7 rounds at the dogs? Or as a cop are you immune to getting into trouble for shooting dogs? (I imagine that with people that if a cop shot someone 7 times after the person was no longer posing an immediate threat he might get in trouble when the department investigated the use of deadly force.)

**Wounded Ronin** · Posted On: 5/10/2010 7:55pm

Originally Posted by KO'd N DOA

In my city, they did something like this in an early morning raid, for a search warrent, and because they carried on like this was a war zone, the guy thought is was home invaders and killed one cop and wonded another shooting his licensed gun through the door. His wife was shot.

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazett...535e6e&k=77394

He got off because police didn't follow procedure, they pretended they were SWAT - they were not.

From that article it sounds like the police opened fire first...wouldn't that constitute unauthorized use of deadly force, given there was one firearm in the house and it wasn't used until after the police opened fire?

**Hooded Justice** · Posted On: 5/11/2010 12:52am

I think the overall message here is that pot should just be legalized so as to avoid this kind of crap all together.

**JudOWNED** · Posted On: 5/11/2010 6:15am

I'm a probation officer not a "cop". The only time I've been involved in something like that was when I was rolling with USM and we were looking for peeps with active felony warrants. And even then we still knicked and entered normally, though we were rolling pretty deep. So, I can't fully speak on what the procedure should have been for the cops involved, which is going to vary from department to department anyway.

I will say this, however. The guy's viewpoint was pretty reasonable all around, from why they had to enter like that, to the 7 shots fired being excessive. The girl, OTOH, is a freakin' idiot who obviously has no idea what types of dangers and violence are out there in the real world. They had a search warrant, which is a legal doc signed by a Judge. That means they got more than an anonymous tip that the guy "might" have a grow operation. They would have had to have produced some evidence justifying the search.

And yeah, the place looked nice and the family looked normal. But none of us have any idea what criminal record the subject might have. For all we know he had a list of felony arrests as long as my arm with all kinds of violence and resisting charges.

Lastly, the one time I was injured on the job, it was by a dog. Dogs are dangerous.

**money** · Posted On: 5/11/2010 8:05am

In situations like that when they are going to do a big-force bust, is surveillance done for an amount of time to get an idea of what is going on and who is in the house?

**Coach Josh** · Posted On: 5/11/2010 8:58am

I shot a dog when I was a cop. I got a call to a domestic from my chief. I roll up and there is pit mix on a chain going bat **** in the yard. The guy raised fighting roosters if that sets the stage for you. After honking the horn I decided to walk around the other way and steer clear of the animal.

No sooner than I got around the corner of the trailer, yes a trailer, I could heard that dog break the chain and making a bee line for me. I spun and put two rounds in it as it was coming at me. After which a had a stare down with owner at gun point with his shot gun. FYI a 12 gauge barrel is fucking huge when you look straight at it.

So I calm him down and tell him that the chief set me her on a call that y'all was having problems. I ask to talk to the wife and proceed to go inside. This place is a fucking **** hole. Roaches on every thing I mean EVERY THING. Coming out of the pots on the stove and crawling from the sofa on to me. I asked her if she was OK she said yes and I just left.

Come to find out the guy was working for the chief of police raising rosters and ****. I go to the fire station and the guys there run dispatch from 5 - midnight. They are pissing themselves laughing because they knew what the place was like. I stripped down in the bathroom and wiped myself down with alcohol. Got another uniform and burned the one I was wearing. Just thinking about it makes my skin crawl.

That's my dog shooting story. The chief got mad because it was his dog I shot but there was no ramifications. In case you haven't guessed I worked a really SMALL town.

**money** · Posted On: 5/11/2010 9:12am

Originally Posted by Coach Josh

That's my dog shooting story. The chief got mad because it was his dog I shot but there was no ramifications. In case you haven't guessed I worked a really SMALL town.

I am very sincerely sorry for the dog and you for having to shoot it, but the fact that it was the chief's dog is a bit humorous.