Los Angeles, CA — Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies opened fire on a biting dog after responding to a call of a teen house party early Thursday morning — but a bullet ricocheted and killed a 17-year-old boy, who was trying to save the dog from gunfire.
Reports say the sheriff’s department received calls about the party and arrived on scene at an apartment complex around 3:47 a.m., local time; but a pit bull sprinted from inside the residence — biting one of the responding deputies on the leg.
Officers restrained the animal — but it broke from their grips.
Armando Garcia, in the meantime, attempted to bring the dog under control, when police unleashed a hail of bullets against the offending animal — one round allegedly grazed the pavement and ricocheted upward — killing the teenager who only wanted to protect the animal.
“We believe that when the individual came out from behind the building, which was approximately 40 feet away from where the shooting occurred, he may have been struck by one of the skip rounds. And it is what we’re calling an extremely, extremely unfortunate incident,” asserted Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Captain Chris Bergner in a press conference Thursday.
Unfortunate in that the teen had been trying to do what the deputies apparently couldn’t — get the dog under control. And, after being rushed to the hospital, Garcia lost his life for the effort.
“My nephew was trying to save the dog because the cops started shooting at the dog,” Amber Alcantar, Garcia’s aunt, told CBS Los Angeles. “He put his life on the line for an animal that wasn’t even his.”
ABC 7 reports:
“Deputies at the scene said they initially responded to a report of loud music at a party. As they were conducting an investigation, a 60 to 65 pound pit bull ‘aggressively charged’ at deputies and bit one of them on his left knee. The deputy was not seriously injured.”
Officers then restrained the animal, but it broke loose — authorities say it charged at the deputies — two of whom then fired at the animal from a distance of just five seven feet. According to reports, the pit bull ran to a carport area behind the apartment complex, with deputies in pursuit — determined to hold the animal in a confined space to prevent any other attacks on bystanders.
“When they got to the carport area, deputies found the teen on the ground suffering from a gunshot wound to the chest,” ABC 7 notes.
Bergner also said the deputy relatively uninjured by the initial dog bite to the left knee was also treated for a gunshot wound from a ricocheting bullet to the right knee.
“This is an extremely, extremely unfortunate incident,” Bergner continued. “The bullet hit the apron of the driveway, traveled about 30 to 40 feet back, and potentially hit this individual who was coming around the corner.”
Of course, the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department has not made clear why spraying a dog with enough rounds to incidentally kill a teenager and wound an officer would have been a wise choice in an apartment complex, where — even given the pre-dawn hour of their arrival — shooting rather indiscriminately at an animal would seem feckless, at best.
Ill-fated, in the case of Armando Garcia — who lost his life to gunfire for trying to protect an animal from the cops.
The pit bull will be euthanized.
Neighbors told the media pit bulls are particularly common in the area, but the unnamed owner of the dog in question described the animal as “a big dog with a baby’s mind” — and it would never have meant any harm.
“Mando is a good kid,” lamented Garcia’s mother, Roberta Alcantar, of the teen who tried to save an animal from officer gunfire. “He did not deserve to die the way he died. I’m going to get to the bottom of it and it’s going to get handled.”
Armando Garcia will join a shamefully lengthy list of individuals who obviously know and love animals better than police — who should be trained to de-escalate animal situations, no matter the circumstances, given they encounter dogs and cats routinely — but who have had their lives cut short by frightened cops.
It seems the modus operandi for police in the U.S. is to shoot first, say something about being scared for life and limb, and don’t bother asking questions later.
And now another human being had his life untimely snuffed — unironically — for trying to protect a beloved dog, that wasn’t even his, from the police.
#1: Justified To: Deckard (#0)
More bias reporting.
Real story:
Cop gets attacked by you guessed it pitbull at 3:45am after being called to the address by concerned citizen. Another stupid dipshit got a neighbor kid killed by not properly securing their pitbull. Another stupid pitbull owner who should be charged with accessory to murder of this kid.
Justified posted on 2017-06-23 18:37:05 Reply Private Reply
#2: Deckard To: Justified (#1)
Real story - Cops unleashed a hail of bullets against the offending animal — one round allegedly grazed the pavement and ricocheted upward — killing the teenager.
The assholes couldn't even kill the dog they were shooting at - but managed to murder a kid trying to control the dog.
Deckard posted on 2017-06-23 19:34:27 Reply Private Reply
#3: Justified To: Deckard (#2)
If I were the cop I would sue the owner of the dog for emotional trauma for defending myself against her vicious dog and accidentally shooting a kid hiding in the dark.
Justified posted on 2017-06-23 19:41:24 Reply Private Reply
#4: Anthem To: Deckard (#2)
Anthem posted on 2017-06-23 19:58:25 Reply Private Reply
#5: Deckard To: Justified (#3)
Oh the poor little baby!
I wouldn't be surprised.
Cops are such snowflakes anyways.
Maybe he could be re-assigned to "safe space" patrol duty.
Deckard posted on 2017-06-23 20:00:48 Reply Private Reply
#6: Deckard To: Anthem (#4)
I used to be - not any more.
Police have become an occupying army in police state Amerika where "if you're not cop, you're little people.
Deckard posted on 2017-06-23 20:02:40 Reply Private Reply
#7: nolu chan To: Justified (#1)
There is no murder here. You may want to try involuntary manslaughter due to negligence of the pitbull owner.
nolu chan posted on 2017-06-23 23:18:13 Reply Private Reply
#8: Anthem To: Deckard (#6)
I put the word conservatives in quotes because they are not really conservatives. At least they aren't trying to conserve anything to do with what Jefferson, Madison, and our Christian heritage left for us. Many are hostile to Christianity, as what Jesus actually taught through parables and miracles is just too liberal for them. They would be more comfortable in Mussolini's Italy than in 19th century USA. At best they would have been Tories more at home in British Canada than in the independence minded Colonies/States.
Cops have changed, dramatically for the worse, in the last 25+ years since Clinton's major thrust into local police in '93. Back around the turn of the century I was at a party, a fun party with lots of Italians from Italy and a few Mexicans from Mexico. The kind of party where they put on dance music and dance rather than standing around blowing smoke at each other with a drink in their hand . Lots of professionals. At one point I was standing near the slider to the deck getting some cool air and talking with a homicide detective. In from the deck wafted the unmistakeable smell of reefer. I watched for my friend's reaction and he sensed this and shrugged. "Not my baliwick." After a moment he added, "I'm after real bad guys."
Our conversation turned to policing and I mentioned that patrol officers were seemingly more hostile to the general public. He amazed me with, "that's why I got out of uniform, the attitude coming down sucked." I raised the subject of federal expansion (the 100,000 new cops Clinton funded) and he mentioned that the training was different for "the new guys." Then he got off the subject (like a good detective he turned the subject to me).
My takeaway from that conversation left me wondering about my hopes for educating people about liberty and Bill of Rights issues; that my 10 years of Internet activism, starting in the old BBS days before browsers, may not be much more than a rear guard action against the onslaught of government centralization supported by the constant barrage of infotainment aimed at the destruction of real conservatism. And this was before the neocon plot effectively captured conservatives and turned them into war drones.
Anthem posted on 2017-06-24 09:10:02 Reply Private Reply
#9: Deckard To: nolu chan (#7)
The Pitbull owner pulled the trigger on the gun that killed the kid?
Of course, the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department has not made clear why spraying a dog with enough rounds to incidentally kill a teenager and wound an officer would have been a wise choice in an apartment complex, where — even given the pre-dawn hour of their arrival — shooting rather indiscriminately at an animal would seem feckless, at best.
Deckard posted on 2017-06-24 10:48:05 Reply Private Reply
#10: Justified To: Deckard (#5)
If people stopped doing stupid things cops would not be called out to deal with stupid people. Never forget cops were called to this location. Let me explain to you. Some citizen wanted the cops to be there! Go figure!!
Lets recap.
1. Cops called by someone living there.
2. Cops came to investigate and were attacked by a vicious pitbull.
3. Cops defended themselves from a sneak attack by a killer dog.
4. Kid in the dark not informing cops he was there(why?).
5. Kid got shot by accident by police who were attacked by vicious killer without warning.
6. Dog owner should be prosecuted since they harbored known vicious dog and was not about to keep vicious animal contained.
The only one here that needs a safe space is you.
Justified posted on 2017-06-24 10:53:11 Reply Private Reply
#11: Justified To: Deckard, nolu chan (#9)
You are an idiot!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dog attacked police without warning in the middle of the night asshate!
If shit for brains stop owning these dogs police would not have to use deadly force against vicious dogs. Nor would good people who are not cops.
I know in your world all cops bad and all criminals are good. We could never see eye to eye.
Justified posted on 2017-06-24 10:58:47 Reply Private Reply
#12: nolu chan To: Deckard (#9)
Yes, the pitbull pulled the trigger, but it is still not murder because the pitbull did not intend to kill the kid when pulling the trigger. The pitbull intended to shoot himself.
Murder requires malice aforethought, the intent to kill a living human being, which distinguishes murder from unlawful homicide.
nolu chan posted on 2017-06-25 03:04:23 Reply Private Reply