Title: Kansas Cop Kills Army Veteran’s Service Dog, then Issues him Two Citations Source:
Photography Is Not a Crime URL Source:https://photographyisnotacrime.com/ ... 0Army%20Veteran%27s%20Service% Published:Apr 18, 2017 Author:Ben Keller Post Date:2017-04-19 10:51:28 by Deckard Keywords:None Views:19026 Comments:131
A Kansas cop shot and killed the service dog of an army veteran who suffers from PTSD on Thursday, according to the Daily Haze.
Augusta police officer Devon Keith says he was forced to shoot Alan Fitzgeralds dog Midnite claiming the dog charged an animal control officer after ramming a door until it opened making the animal control officer fear for his life.
But Fitzgerald said his dog didnt do anything wrong and officer Keith shot him for no reason.
Alan Fitzgerald and his service dog, Midnite, before a cop shot and killed it.
Neighbors who witnessed the shooting said the animal control officer was the one who opened the door and began acting aggressively towards the dog before shooting it.
Augusta police, along with animal control, showed up at Fitzgeralds house Thursday afternoon after a neighbor called to complain about a German Shepard.
Fitzgerald said Midnite got out on Thursday, presumably chasing rabbits and cats as he often did. Midnite ended up several mobile homes down from his home, hovering over a neighbors small dog.
Its how he plays, Fitzgerald explained.
Fitzgerald talked to the small dogs owner, who said the smaller dog wasnt hurt, just shaken up from Midnite towering over it.
Things settled and Fitzgerald returned home and was in the shower when he heard Midnite bark and then gunshots.
All of a sudden, I heard this pound pound pound on the screen door, Fitzgerald recalled.
And I heard Midnite barking, obviously hes going to bark because hes guarding the house. All of a sudden then I heard shots fired and I heard my dog screaming in agony.
Fitzgerald came out to see what was going on only to have a gun pointed at him inside of his own house.
I got halfway out the door, and about right here where this crack is, theres an officer standing with his gun pointed at me. I said what are you guys doing here, why did you kill my dog? he said, Get on the ground, I said, Im not gonna get on the ground so I went inside and slammed the door, he told KSN.
August Police Chief Tyler Brewer defended officer Keith.
The animal control officer felt in fear for his life, the chief said.
These officers feel horrible for having to do that.
According to chief Brewer, when the animal control officer knocked on the door, Midnite answered.
The front door was open but the glass screen door was shut, Brewer explained. The dog rushed and hit the glass of the screen door and startled the animal control officer.
Officer Keith was forced to shoot Midnite when the animal control officer fell off the porch, hitting his head, trying to bite the officer, according to Brewer.
Midnite
But Fitzgeralds neighbor Charmin Drake says the dog got out because the animal control officer actually opened the door, not Midnite, then entered without a warrant and began kicking and even hitting Midnite with a baton.
After beating the dog, officers went outside and shot Midnite. Then they issued Fitzgerald two citations for having a vicious animal.
Fitzgerald rescued Midnight in 2015 and obtained an ADA service dog certificate, which required the dog to pass behavioral tests without showing signs of aggression, and said he had Midnite for his PTSD.
Whenever I was having some sort of episode of oncoming anxiety, he knew what to do. Hed come up and nudge me or do something silly. Hed turn over on his back and give that little smile, you know, that dogs give. Im just going to miss all of that.
Check out the Daily Haze interview with Alan Fitzgerald below.
Poster Comment:
The animal control officer felt in fear for his life, the chief said.
Midnite was a 4-year-old 85 lbs. German Shepherd. Surely the glass door that he was blasting up against would have suffered some damage from Midnite charging so hard it resulted in breaking the latch loose.
In your pictures, there is no blood on the porch where the dog lay shot.
Your pictures are either taken before the shooting or after the shooting, when the porch was cleaned up and the door fully repaired.
Here is a picture of the dead dog with blood all over the porch.
Here is a picture of the storm door bottom with the glass and screen broken through.
Someone in your pictures did a clean up, repair and cover up to hide the evidence.
Or someone in my pictures replaced the good door with a broken bottom bad door and planted a dead dog with blood all over the porch.
Which do you logically think it is?
I fail to understand Deckard, he is a complete idiot.
The City of Augusta was said to have stated they would not issue a permit for Midnites vigil. This alone is a problem. The Supreme Court has made it very clear that Government officials cannot prohibit a public assembly in their own discretion.
Yep, and the SCOTUS did not say that the City of Augusta could not pass an ordinance to require a permit for a public demonstration to assemble.
Check it out .numerous cities have an ordinance requiring a permit and it has never been challenged in the SCOTUS.
Another futile effort at spinning on your part .give it up.
I fail to understand Deckard, he is a complete idiot.
After busting through the glass door Midnite allegedly charged at the animal control officer, causing him to fall backward on the porch and hit his head. Amazingly, the officer managed to shoot Midnite as he was flying through the air towards the animal control officer.
Bullshit .nothing amazing about that at all.
I fail to understand Deckard, he is a complete idiot.
So you can go into the map and drag-drop the little yellow stick figure on the street where it is marked and see a Street View in all directions around this trailer house. I'll try to embed it below.
Google made a mistake with the street number and think it is 1585 Cedar Ln, not 1604 (Google is really bad at street numbers in trailer parks). But that covered porch with the red railings and the little shrub growing out front, it all looks consistent with the photos posted above.
So here is the embedded image of the place. Judge for yourself.
(Hit that little square icon at the upper-right to go full-screen and see the property in greater detail.)
One thing I noticed immediately was that Midnite would still be alive if his owner had loved his dog enough to build a small yard fence. His neighbors loved their dogs/kids enough to build fences for them.
The town's chief of police, Ken Moore, says the shooting was justifiable. The dog, he claims, was showing signs of aggression and appeared to be a "dangerous" breed. A pit bull mix. (Pit bulls have a very undeserved reputation.)
"We have a right to defend ourselves so I stand by my officer in the decision that he made," Moore told News 9.
Never mind reports that the officer used a high-powered rifle he took out of his car to shoot the dog through a fence. Or that a computer glitch may have led officers to the wrong address.
Truth is treason in the empire of lies. - Ron Paul
Those who most loudly denounce Fake News are typically those most aggressively disseminating it.
We went to the Fitzgerald residence just hours after the shooting. Our entire time there, the front door was open and the glass door was closed, just as it was earlier in the afternoon. We entered and exited through the door with no problem what-so- ever. There was no apparent damage to the door, or the latch.
Compare the two pictures of the storm door.
This one taken before the shooting or after the shoot when the door had been repaired .shows the storm door with the window and screen intact.
This one taken when the do way laying dead on the porch with blood everywhere shows the bottom window and screen broken trhough.
Either someones lying or the pictures are lying .which do you think?
I fail to understand Deckard, he is a complete idiot.
Either someones lying or the pictures are lying .which do you think?
Well, at least there is some misreporting. Maybe to help gin up a clickbait headline on a cop-hater site.
You've probably noticed that "Beware Of The Dog" sign that I mentioned on the door by now. If Midnite was such a well-trained and non-aggressive dog, why did he post that sticker?
Thats always an indication that he has given up trying to prove any point he though he may have had.
I'm not sure that merely trying to change the subject is tantamount to an admission but you have to keep it in mind.
Posting another half-dozen anti-cop/anti-gooberment articles in the sidebar might be a way to try to change the subject but I can't say that is the only reason to post so many at once.
Stop trying to change the subject. We are discussing this guy and his dog in Augusta KS. Not anyone else. Your contention that a fence would have saved Midnite was a supposition on your part.
I merely pointed out your misconception.
Sure you did
And you tried to divert away from the primary conversation by adding:
Heartbroken Salt Lake City man berates cops after they shoot dog in back yard
Cops Show Up To Wrong House And Shoot Little Boys Dog
Both of which are off topic
Stop lying .its getting old stuff.
I fail to understand Deckard, he is a complete idiot.
In the top pic the lower sliding glass window is raised about one foot.
In the bottom pic the lower sliding glass window is raised all the way up, and the screen is partially punched out with the retaining bead hanging.
The cop went in and beat the dog with a baton and kicked it repeatedly and then shot it, so the dog punched through the screen to escape, and expired on the porch.
Most of the blood is in the top right, so someone may have moved the body to get the door to open further.
The D&R terrorists hate us because we're free, to vote second party
"We (government) need to do a lot less, a lot sooner" ~Ron Paul
" One can only hope that if you have a dog, you suffer the same sad fate as this Veteran. "
Deck, I would not wish that on the dog. He/she is suffering enough to live there. Wish it on him/her, not the dog.
Si vis pacem, para bellum
Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.
Never Pick A Fight With An Old Man He Will Just Shoot You He Can't Afford To Get Hurt
I am concerned for the security of our great nation; not so much because of any threat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within." -- General Douglas MacArthur
In the bottom pic the lower sliding glass window is raised all the way up, and the screen is partially punched out with the retaining bead hanging.
I noticed too. Not sure how many conclusions we can draw.
The cop went in and beat the dog with a baton and kicked it repeatedly and then shot it, so the dog punched through the screen to escape, and expired on the porch.
Yeah but there is no mention or pix of blood inside the house. So I don't think so.
KWCH12: Alan tells me the previous incident with Midnite - the dog bit his teenage nephew at El Dorado lake last summer, and the teen had to get stitches but was okay.
Hmm...that doesn't sound like a trained service animal to me.
It seems that "Beware Of The Dog" sign on the front door was there for a reason: a known aggressive biting dog was on the premises.
I notice the police chief said they couldn't find a record of any state certification of the dog as a service animal. So it isn't clear if this was a lawful service animal or if he just had some training but didn't get certified (because he was too busy biting kids and cops to finish getting certified).
Apparently, Kansas has a law against claiming a dog is a service dog unless the dog is fully certified. The chief says they're investigating and hasn't ruled out filing charges on the service dog certification issue.
At the 04:00 minute mark, I liked the clock chiming: cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo...
Seemed a fitting background sound.
In the "interview", the guy sounds guilty. He didn't protect his dog and he didn't control his dog. I bet this dog has a lot more history than these articles are telling us.
Some interesting comments made by Alan Fitzgerald on the video.
At 1:02 Alan stated this dog darted out the door [to chase a rabbit or cat] .so the dog had charged through the door before.
In a newspaper report [and I cant find where again] a police officer said they had trouble there (at Alans residence) before (did no say with the dog). as best as I remember.
This is obviously confirmed [that the police had been to the Firzgerald residence before] because at 5:07 Alan Fitzgerald said: There was a private call coming through on his phone. I knew it as them because they always call that way. I repeat, Alan said: I knew it as them because they always call that way. I wonder if the police always call that way because of a problem with the dog, a problem with Alans PTSD, or another problem with Alan or someone else at the residence. So, this would indicate that Alan and the police were no strangers to each other .that is an apparent conclusion.
At 3:43 Alan said he heard banging on his door and then he heard shots. I did not pause between those two statements. So, there is no way of know the time line between the knock and the shots. The way Alan told the story makes me question the neighbors eyewitness statement that the police officer opened the door and went in.
Exactly. Notice the mention of the chief when he said they sent a cop with an animal control officer because in one (or more) previous calls to that address, a lone animal control officer wasn't enough.
Maybe the animal control officer in this dinky burg knew this dog and had good cause to be afraid of him.
I notice the police chief said they couldn't find a record of any state certification of the dog as a service animal. So it isn't clear if this was a lawful service animal or if he just had some training but didn't get certified (because he was too busy biting kids and cops to finish getting certified).
I came to the conclusion some time ago, that people throw the term "service dog" around far too loosely.