Police kill dog while stopping at wrong house on alarm call

Milwaukee Sentinel Journal ^ | April 30, 2004 | REID J. EPSTEIN

[decimon]

Muskego - Police officers responding to a burglar alarm at the wrong house shot and killed a 100-pound family dog that bounded toward them, the dog's owner said Friday. Muskego

At his mother's home Tuesday afternoon, Jacob Davida was working on his computer when he heard a knock at the front door.

With Bongo, the family's Mastiff, St. Bernard and German shepherd mix at his side, Davida opened the door to find police officers with guns drawn.

As usual, Bongo, 9, was without a leash because he didn't run off and never harmed anyone, Davida said. Bongo, with golden fur and a block-shaped head, was best friend to Davida and his four siblings. But on this day, the dog's inquisitive nature marked his downfall.

"My dog ran up from behind me toward the cop because he's a curious dog," said Davida, 24, of Madison. "I was screaming at the top of my lungs for them to stop shooting, for them to stop."

But his screams went for naught. The dog's days of walks in the park and canoe trips ended with a shot through his neck, Davida said.

"The cop just started shooting," he said. "The first bullet hit the ground close to me. The second shot hit the driveway. Then he shot and killed my dog right in front of me."

After shooting Bongo, Davida said, police officers told him that they were at his house to investigate a burglar alarm. The house, west of Big Muskego Lake, has no such alarm.

"They put that over the radio, and it came back that they had the wrong address," Davida said. "It turned out they were at the wrong place. Most of the cops left at that point to check out the actual burglary."

Muskego police Sgt. David Constantineau confirmed Friday that officers shot a dog Tuesday afternoon but said he would not release any details.

"It's under investigation," he said.

Davida finally went back to his computer programming job in Madison on Friday, but said the horror of watching his dog's death left him stricken.

"Retelling the story, I kind of shake," Davida said. "I had to break the news to each of my family members. I can't get the scene out of my head. It just plays over and over."

Bongo is to be buried on a farm in Fall River in Columbia County owned by Davida's sister and her husband.

As it turned out, the alarm came from the next-door neighbor's house. The neighbor, Robert Anderson, said nothing was taken, but the back and garage doors were left open.

To make matters worse, Davida watched the would-be burglar escape but, terrified after seeing his dog shot, didn't say anything to police.

"I saw the guy leave while the cops were interrogating me," he said. "I just assumed it was another police officer."

[decimon]

On the other hand, if the dog had jumped and ripped the officer's throat, we'd have wondered why he didn't have his weapon out already.

I'm not without sympathy for what a police officer must anticipate. I don't fault them for having guns drawn given that they were responding to a burglary in progress. But this is so bad that I had to laugh at the thought of such a cockup. Is it that if you have a gun then you get shot and if you don't then your dog gets shot? It is your own home, after all.

[Sir Gawain]

F*ck the police.

[henderson field]

Let's have the names and home addresses of those cops.

[Bikers4Bush]

BS. He should pay restitution. You don't get off with personal and humiliating penance when you go to the wrong address and kill a family pet without cause while the burglar escapes from the house next door.

[decimon]

I guess Davida can thank his lucky stars his children didn't coming running up right at that point, instead of the dog!

Given the two errant shots, a child could well have been hurt.

[ruoflaw]

If a cop ever maced my jack russell, I would probably end up in the clink...but it would be worth it!

[henderson field]

The replacement cost of that dog is $10,000,000. The owner of something can place any price on it that he wants to.

[johnfrink]

The cop can be faulted for an inconsistent approach. On one hand he knocked on the door, which means he thought there was some chance that the alarm was a false alarm, as most are. On the other hand, he was armed, meaning he thought there was a chance that he'd encounter the perp. Had he been consistent, i.e., had ALL of his behavior matched his level of perceived threat as witnessed by the fact he unholstered his weapon, he would not have knocked on the door. What, did he think the burglar would answer and shoot him? I think the truth is he didn't really know what the heck he was doing. Don't know about this officer, but such an inconsistent approach leads me to believe he is a young officer, without much experience.. Thus, the city will pay out its rear-end to avoid an embarassing trial and to avoid revealing their shoddy training techniques.

[Sender]

Would the police then sue me for the replacement cost of the officer?

[Taylor42]

I wonder if they will shoot one of my cats???

[Sender]

7. Left alive.

[decimon]

F*ck the police.

Tempting in moments of anger but I think a person or two has felt much the same of me. Time, IMO, to reassess what we want our police to be.

[johnfrink]

I know you're joking, but one of these days, something like that will really happen. The cops will do something stupid, like kill a guy's dog for no good reason, and the owner will just go crazy, requiring the cops to take HIM down. I mean, I have the utmost respect for cops in my area, and know many of them, but if one of them took a shot at my dog (a 10 month old golden retriever), it would not be a pleasant scene.

[who knows what evil?]

Ditto. Any cop this irresponsible needs to be financially devastated for life. Hurt any of my animals, and there WILL be funerals...most involving six-foot caskets.

[mcshot]

I checked in on a gun related site and it seemed that all the LEOs(law enforcement officers) stated that they would shoot the dog without question. That really bothered me as does this story. My dogs are family members and will receive the same protection if threatened. This law abiding citizen is quite disturbed by the LEO crop these days.

mc

[theDentist]

Yes. But if you're a cop and a dog comes runnning at you from inside the house, are you legally obligated to wait until the dog bites you before you defend yourself? I mean, I feel terribly for the owner, but I can't really fault the cops for not taking the chance.

[Sender]

I have to say that this scenario is a worrisome one to me, because I have thought about how it could happen to me. My dog is the nicest you could imagine, yet he has the looks of a German shepherd and is very defensive of his peeps if he thinks someone is threatening us. He is also very curious and loves to run to the door to lick and greet everyone.

I also take him for long walks, part of it on school property where local cops patrol and sometimes run their dogs. Now I don't worry about my dog doing anything wrong, but what if a cop or two decided to check me out while walking some night and approached me in a sensibly cautious but mildly threatening posture? I'm sure my dog would do no more than alert and wag his tail, and head in their direction to lick and sniff them. However you can imagine what could occur, especially with a cop afraid of dogs.

I hate to have to put him back on a leash for these walks but hey, if it prevents the above scenario then I guess it's just part of the price we pay for living in the 21st century. I've turned it over in my head many times and if I had to watch my dog shot in this way, I'd never rest until justice was done. I couldn't put it behind me and move on.

[george wythe]

Jacob, count your blessings.

You're still alive; you could easily have ended dead with drywall powder next to you, identified as a berserk cokehead who had to be shot.

[ruoflaw]

for one thing, we all want our police to be properly trained! This happened in the afternoon and the officers had their guns pulled when they rang the door bell. I am surprised that they didn't shoot the person that answered the door...how would you feel if you opened the door to see officers standing their with their guns pulled?

I worked at a police dept. and I can tell you that officers would have been fired over an incident like this.

[johnfrink]

Absolutely. Dogs are pack animals, and will move to defend those in their pack--the humans in their family. This story is somewhat interesting to me because I was attacked by a dog last week, and when the cops came to my house to take the statement, my dog went running to the door to greet them. Fortunately I was able to get him in time (though all he'd do is drown them with saliva), but you never know what can happen when a cop arrives with incomplete information.