Considering this is a very small place—probably no more than a few hundred—I’m sure everyone in town knew of the situation. I could understand if this happened in a huge system, but in this case it seems unnecessary.
From the comments by the locals, the old man and his dog were never a problem. The cop was new to the town.
Two weeks before, a couple pit bulls on a tear killed some agg student’s show cow. The department was on a new zero tolerance policy. The ADA had ordered that the dog not be killed, but someone disobeyed.