Detroit, MI — Citizens are on the hook yet again for police misconduct, this time because an officer shot a dog — which was tethered to a steel cable. Detroit Police Officer Darrell Dawson and other officers responded to a call of an active shooter in the area near Daryl Lindsay’s home on the city’s south side. Looking for the suspect, officers then surrounded Lindsay’s home. In the yard was Lindsay’s dog — securely tethered to his home by a ten-foot, steel cable leash.
What happened next should infuriate every pet owner.
On January 31, 2015, according to police dashcam footage obtained by a Freedom of Information Act request, “Dawson approached the dog and while standing just outside of the dog’s reach, shot her twice in the chest.”
Babycakes, as Lindsay called his female Dogue de Bordeaux, died from the gunshot wounds.
Lindsay felt compelled to file a lawsuit against the City of Detroit for the completely unjustified killing of his beloved pet.
“A well-developed body of federal law holds that police unreasonably killing a dog violates the owner’s Fourth Amendment rights,” Lindsay’s attorney, Chris Olson explained, as local FOX 2 reported. “In particular, where the dog does not pose an imminent threat, or the officer is not surprised by the dog and has time to make alternate plans to control the dog, other than shooting; the shooting of the dog is an unreasonable seizure that violates the Fourth Amendment.”Lindsay won the lawsuit and has now been awarded $100,000 compensation — which will essentially leave citizens on the hook for the payout.
As for the original emergency call, no shooter was ever found in the area.
It’s unclear if Dawson was disciplined by the department for the shooting, though records Olsen obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show Dawson described seeing a “large brown dog” and that he “was verbally counseled … regarding other avenues of approach one can take when entering private property for exterior searches.”
The Free Thought Project has previously reported numerous incidents of unjustified police killings of people’s pets, including one case where an officer laughed in the face of the pet owner whose dog he’d just killed.
This heartless and unjustified police killing of yet another non-threatening pet, leads many to wonder how those so petrified of restrained animals choose law enforcement — and supposedly apprehending dangerous criminals — as a career.
