Posted on 09/23/2010 7:45:07 AM PDT by Inappropriate Laughter
Family members claim they called police for help Wednesday morning, but when officers arrived, they were treated like criminals and an officer shot and killed their family dog. It all unfolded in the 1100 block of Fiji Lane in Landover.
Four-year-old Mercedes, a Rottweiler mix, is the latest dog shot and killed by police in Prince George's County.
Dog owner Sterling Barlow said about Mercedes, "Cold blood... Shot in the head for no reason."
The problem started when owner Sterling Barlow's brother pulled into the family driveway after work early Wednesday morning. The family claims two men immediately approached, armed with a gun and demanding his car. The brother managed to fight them off, ran into the house and came back out firing his gun.
"If somebody did that to your family you will retaliate the best way you know how," said Barlow.
After a shootout with the alleged robbers, the two brothers called police. When police arrived, Barlow says things got out of hand with the officers and his innocent dog paid the tragic price.
Barlow said, "One grabs me in the head lock and starts punching me in the face."
Mother Dwana Barlow said, "The police officer wouldn't even let me go to the bathroom... and held me hostage in my own house."
While being wrestled to the ground by five different cops, Barlow and witnesses in the neighborhood tell us a female Prince George's County officer shot the dog in the head.
Barlow stated, "While this was going on I said 'please, don't point a gun at my dog.' I begged her. She didn't need to be involved in this. She was in the yard."
But Barlow was arrested and charged with multiple crimes, including insulting an officer. Police say the officer acted appropriately when shooting the dog.
Neighbor Barbara Wells said, "The dog did not attack anyone. He never approached anyone. Even as the officers grabbed Sterling the dog didn't do anything."
Police spent hours Wednesday searching for the full police report. Around 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, police called ABC 7 News on the phone and confirmed that an officer did shoot and kill the dog out of self defense. There will be a police investigation but that officer will not be placed on administrative leave.
The alleged robbers have not been found.
Another Merlan dog had to die.
Were this my animal there’d be at least one cop looking over her shoulder every day for the rest of her life.
The citizens don’t know if the cops are hot-headed thugs, best to not call them in the first place.
They are rendering themselves useless to the communities they serve through their bad behavior.
I can’t go after uniforms...just can’t do it. My list of progressives, communists, and liberal filth already take up most of my “list” for when the day comes and the balloon goes up. /henry bowman
JBT’s
All of the above.
That's the real deal. They don't have any skin in the outcome. It's the taxpayers who would be stuck footing the bill. I like the idea of a personal liability bond. It may make the think before they do something stupid.
God Bless Bill Ruger for his 77/22, and God Bless Gem-Tech for their quiet suppressors. The day may come where I switch from 4 legged varmints to 2 legged ones.
“including insulting an officer”
How is that possible? I need to know the words!
Calling the cops? Don’t. It would take a lot for me to call the cops. I expect the worst from them. Things are dangerous, people are flaky but the behavior of some cops is completely out of reason and the risk of them doing something like this or worse is too great.
These people are given a public trust to brandish lethal weapons, use personal discretion in making arrests and applying force. When they violate this trust the punishment should be decisive and disproportionate to the offense. They should be held to a higher standard because they are given higher authority than the rest of us.
Sure, there are good cops but bad cops seem to be growing in number. Cops need to police their own lest they find themselves facing the retribution of citizens. Like someone said, it is tough to be in uniform in a gorilla war.
Try taking a picture, or recording, of a cop...
If a common citizen kills a police dog, they are charged with a felony for it. If I am not wrong, a police MAN can use deadly force to defend his dog. Why can’t the common man do the same?
We taxpayers a law abiding citizenry, with what is being done by making everything illegal or subject to fine is a form of totalitarianism fueled by kickbacks to officers of city government.
I like the idea of the personal liability bond. Screw ups like this would put them off the force permanently for lack of the ability to post bonds in the future.
In Virginia, if a person kills another in self defense, the law states that the person still standing is to be automatically charged with the death of the other, with an investigation to follow. [This would encourage the philosophy of “shoot, shovel, shut up”, all else being equal.] The question I have is this: Is this true in the case of a shooting by police, and if not, why not? I realize that this could be taken as a sarcastic rhetorical question, like a lot of others that I post; in this case it is not. I am REALLY getting tired of people with uniforms considering themselves above the law, like the folks that write the laws do.
Why don't you drop the giant attitude and just say what you mean in a respectful, intelligent manner.
I read the article and wondered myself why the dog wasn't confined somewhere away from the arriving officers. Maybe it was in fact restrained somehow but the article does not state that.
Either you know more than the article states or you are getting ahead of what you do know.
First mistake
I thought I was respectfull, short and to the point. This from the article is what I was refering to...
Barlow stated, "While this was going on I said 'please, don't point a gun at my dog.' I begged her. She didn't need to be involved in this. She was in the yard."
Neighbor Barbara Wells said, "The dog did not attack anyone. He never approached anyone. Even as the officers grabbed Sterling the dog didn't do anything."
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