Troopers Shoot, Kill Fenced-In Dog Serving Warrant Next Door

NBC-10 ^ | 11/13/2007

[Malacoda]

CHESTER TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- Pennsylvania State Police shot a family's fenced-in pet to death Tuesday.

Troopers later admitted they weren't supposed to be in that yard in the first place.

State troopers were in the neighborhood, trying to serve a warrant on someone. They sent a couple of extra troopers around to guard the back door. Those officers, however, cut through a neighbor's yard, and that's when they came across Sheeba, a very protective family dog, NBC 10's Tim Furlong reported.

"She was doing her job. That's what she does, she protects us," said DiQuan Dill said.

DiQuan and his five brothers and sisters got the bad news when they got home from school Tuesday that their Belgian shepard was killed in their back yard.

Their mom was there when it happened.

"I was in there laying down and, all of a sudden, I heard gunfire -- about five or six rounds," Denise Dill said.

But what disturbed the family most was that state police killed Sheeba.

"When I came to the door, they were actually next door, and I said, 'What's the matter? Who shot my dog?' And he was like, 'Your dog bit me.' I said, 'What are you doing in the yard?' And he said, 'We're looking for this guy over here.' I said, 'Why did you have to shoot the dog?' He said, 'She bit me.' I said, 'Why you didn't just get out of the yard?'"

Denise's fiancée was devastated, and she said the kids were even more upset.

"She was always happy. I don't know why they did that. She was always joyful, running around, everything," DiQuan said.

The bitten state trooper was recovering from puncture wounds to his hand.

A lieutenant at his barracks admitted the trooper should never have cut through the yard in the first place. He told NBC 10 the troopers never saw or heard the dog in the yard but that, either way, troopers are not supposed to cut through private property to serve out a warrant at another house.

"He obviously panicked, you know, and messed up," Dill said.

She got business cards from the troopers on scene, and she said one trooper apologized.

But an apology can't bring Sheeba back to the kids who grew up with her.

"We got dog food and everything, and we don't have anyone to give it to. We don't got nothing," Dill said.

State police said they do apologize and will compensate the family for their loss, Furlong reported. The man they came to get was taken into custody on pretty minor charges, Furlong said.

[Triggerhippie]

Again, other than your second sentence, you and I are in complete agreement.

Here's why: What would happen if some teen in a car runs over your dog (either intentionally or not)? *Kill my dog for no good reason and I’ll bring you to room temperature.* Would you shoot them? (Or, to keep the analogy more accurate, would you run them over?) I'd hope you'd do neither.

I have a few pets myself and, while I love them dearly, I wouldn't place their lives above a human life. (I think that this is actually the root of where our philosophies may differ.)

ANYONE can carry a weapon. Doing so RESPONSIBLY is another matter.

Amen! This can never be said enough.

[ElkGroveDan]

Just a FRiendly reminder: Please: NO profanity, NO personal attacks, NO racism or violence in posts.

Yeah, place the personal attacks on your home page like this idiot Triggerhippie does. http://www.freerepublic.com/~triggerhippie/

[ought-six]

“So shooting Police Officers is OK?”

How in the hell did you come to that conclusion? You should take a course in Reason 101. Do you know what a non-sequitur is? You just committed one.

[org.whodat]

What is wrong with law enforcment.

Post 58

[org.whodat]

But clearly they have few friends here.

As long as they act like special privileged jackbooted criminals, they get the treatment they have earned. In southwest Virginia about 95% of them fall in that category.

[ozzymandus]

Aw, it’s deleted.

[Triggerhippie]

You’re still a POS.

[ElkGroveDan]

We cop-haters have to stick together.

[ElkGroveDan]

You’re still a POS.

This from the guy who said:

Just a FRiendly reminder: Please: NO profanity, NO personal attacks

The RINOS, liberals, commies, baby-killers, homos and gun grabbers have been saying that about me for the last 20 years. Maybe you guys should start a club.

[Czar]

Guess he didn't appreciate your pointing out the blatant hypocrisy between what he says and what he does.

Perhaps a check of his conservative credentials is in order. I sense it may be time again for another thinning of the herd. We seem to be accumulating more deadwood.

[wideminded]

This kind of crap is happening FAR, FAR too often these days.

Actually, it very rarely happens.

Well there was a very similar incident described in an article on FR about a week ago.

[ozzymandus]

I love cops, as long as they do the job they’re paid to do, and don’t morph into some cross between Barney Fife and Robocop, as so many, many cops seem to do today. When I was a kid, even when I was a wild teenager, the cops could tell the difference between criminals and citizens. Now, they assume everybody is a criminal, and if they can’t find any reason to arrest or ticket you they tell you they’re going to “cut you a break” and let you go about your business. The worst run-in I had with bad cops was one night when I got pulled over on a busy street on the pretext of “weaving within my lane” (a standard excuse for harassment), and ended up getting my entire car searched and myself frisked with my hands on the trunk as traffic rolled by. About halfway through this charade, I realized I was being used as a training tool by one cop breaking in a rookie. The “experienced” cop (who I later found out had washed out of Highway Patrol school and had to take a job as night-shift small-town cop) told the rookie, a fat nervous kid, every move to make. After they went through the whole routine, they told me my belt buckle “looked like a weapon”, and that was why they frisked me. Then they told me they were going to “cut me a break” and let me go. I was so fricking mad I was shaking, but I just went home. Next day I complained to the Mayor, and found out a few days later that these punks had been harassing people all over town, to the point that a bunch of PO’d people showed up at the next city council meeting and complained. In the end, the Hypo washout was fired, and the rookie got a good talking-to. now a few years later, the rookie is out county sheriff (unelected). Like I said, I love cops, as long as they do their jobs. When they turn into jackbooted thugs, yeah, I hate ‘em.

[ElkGroveDan]

ditto

[ozzymandus]

Whew! That was a load off. ;>)