Posted on 02/07/2009 3:04:18 PM PST by ellery
"They hit the door right here and the door flew open," says Mike Hasenei, standing outside his Elkridge home.
His wife, Phyllis, was watching television with her 12-year old daughter when members of the Howard County Police Tactical Team came through the door.
"They had guns pointed at us. You have 25 guys coming in here all dressed in black and all that we saw were their eyes, and they're screaming 'Hands in the air!'"
Members of the team were acting upon a tip that an assault rifle, magazines and hollow-point bullets stolen from a marked police car the night before may be located inside.
Adding insult to injury, when the search led police to a back bedroom where they encountered the family’s dog, they opened fire.
Officers found no evidence of the stolen goods after ransacking the house.
At this point a complaint has been logged against the department, but Howard County Police aren't about to admit they were wrong or to apologize for their actions.
"No. We didn't find a weapon in this particular case,” said Sherry Llewellyn, a spokeswoman for the department, “but that doesn't mean that there wasn't good information that there were weapons there before we had a chance to get inside the house."
Now, Mike Hasenei is waiting on an Internal Affairs investigation into the raid before deciding whether he and his family will take the department to court.
"I'm not gonna sit down and let people walk all over me and say 'sorry' and walk out of my house."
Head shots only.....best practice.
You don’t know that. It could have attacked the police. Just because it is a family dog doesn’t mean that it’s a friendly dog.
Unless you are the policeman that shot the dog, or a reincarnated version of the dog itself, I doubt you can speak for what the dog was doing.
It is power and its corrupting influence. We will see more and more of this with our current government.
No, like are you?
Why? If it were a pit bull that’s bitten 11 kids in the neighborhood, then that’s a little different than a golden retriever that lets kids ride on its back...
You know these thugs are wearing flak jackets.
Although as thick and empty as some of their skulls are, you may have to shoot twice to hit anything vital....
“You don’t know that.”
The article said the dog was in the back bedroom on the bed. Sounds to me like it was minding its own business. Your comment intimated that if the dog was of a breed you disapproved it was was fair game.
You sound like a nut.
Scary.
Not at all, guess it went over your head
How come “conservative” talk radio never touches these issues?
It’s hopeless.
Ozzy never met a stranger, no matter who came to our door, Ozzy would drop his toy at their feet and want them to pick it up so he could fetch. The only thing he was hard on was skunks and opossums, he's kill either one.
Ozzy was so smart, I could point in which direction he had to go in order to find his toy if he lost it due to an errant throw.
We lost Ozzy to cancer on Christmas Day, 2004. He was barely 5 1/2 years old. Ozzy's dad is still alive (full blooded Border Collie) and living on my brother's farm not far from here.
Sorry, guys. I guess you just trust the news a little more than I do. No one shoots a peaceful dog on a bed. When police feel threatened, they defend themselves, and that’s what they should do. Nothing is gained by shooting a friendly docile dog in a house that is offering no resistance. Be real, guys.
One of the problems we have today is that conservatives and liberals alike will jump on any story that they think could prove their point as the only valid one.
What I’m saying is—you don’t know the whole story. The breed/size/temperament of a dog will make a big difference in how you feel toward it. Maybe y’all have been lucky enough to never encounter an unfriendly “family” dog. I love dogs, but if a mean one is trying to hurt me, I’d have no reservations about defending myself.
“But they shouldn’t have been in the house in the first place!” Maybe not, but again, you can’t be sure. Unless you have the information the police had, you may not ever know if the guns in question had been in the house.
There’s always more to the story. Always.
“No one shoots a peaceful dog on a bed.”
Wanna bet? Perhaps you don’t remember the family dog of that family who pulled into a gas station and they all got out to stretch, including the family dog. A cop car pulled up, and the dog, who was friendly as hell, tail wagging, etc. walked toward the cop to get petted, and the prick shot and killed it. It caused a big stink nationally. The doofus said “Well, how was I to know the dog wanted to get petted?”
My dog is like that. She’ll walk up to someone, tail a-wagging, just wanting to say “hi.” If anyone shot her, I am quite certain I’d end up in jail.
“Unless you have the information the police had, you may not ever know if the guns in question had been in the house.”
Well, then how come they didn’t find any? How come they didn’t find ANYTHING! The information they had was bad, and they rushed to judgment and acted on that bad information, and as a result a family was victimized, its pet killed, and a little 12-year old girl hand-cuffed and traumatized for God knows how long and to what extent.
The company I used to be with defended law enforcement agencies and departments throught the country, and I saw a great many cases of police over-reaction. Believe me, if I were a plaintiff’s attorney I’d be all over this case.
If they didn't act like JBT's every time they get a "tip" and bust thorough an innocent families front door, they wouldn't have been in a position to have to defend themselves from any type of dog.
This crap is getting all too common. Just yesterday there was an incedent where a nervous cop shot a kneeling women with a child in her arms. She was killed and the child was shot through its hand. He shot her through a closed door in a panicked reaction to other cops shooting, you guessed it the family pets. Incedentily, no evedence turned up in the house to support their "tip"
To poke fun at the incident, well lets just say it wasn't the right thread.
http://www.doggies.com/Border_Collie/New_Jersey
Regards, Jane
Heya Jane.. Thanks for the link. Glen Highland Farm in N.Y. is the closest thing to a camp (where you can hang out with your dog for a weekend) that I found. Still looking though. Watch there be one a few towns over like in Colts Neck or Tinton Falls, NJ. Thanks again, Toni
What’s really cute is when a dog is in the pen with the sheep the other dogs run up and down barking and encouraging ... my girl does that too ... the owner was telling me that when my girl starts nipping at the sheep she’s getting tired ... normally just barking does it ... they’re black face sheep which are considered the meanest ...
The war on (some) drugs is what enables this army of gangsters to attack your house anytime they want and kill your dog or any other living being that they perceive as a threat.
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