I'll get you, my pretty...
...and your dog too!
Posted on 04/30/2014 4:24:01 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Arzy, a Labrador-Newfoundland-golden retriever mix, was shot and killed on Monday by a Louisiana police officer, according to owner and traveling Portland musician Brandon Carpenter.
Arzy, a Labrador-Newfoundland-golden retriever mix, was shot and killed on Monday by a Louisiana police officer, according to owner and traveling Portland musician Brandon Carpenter.
Brandon Carpenter, an itinerant musician from Portland, plays with his dog, Arzy Kensington. The dog was killed on Monday by a police officer from Louisiana, according to Carpenter, who is seeking justice for his pet. Courtesy of Brandon Carpenter Brandon Carpenter, an itinerant musician from Portland, plays with his dog, Arzy Kensington. The dog was killed on Monday by a police officer from Louisiana, according to Carpenter, who is seeking justice for his pet. Brandon Carpenter, an itinerant musician from Portland, said Wednesday that a Louisiana police officer shot and killed his dog Monday morning, even though the “incredibly friendly” dog was on a four-foot leash.
“That dog wouldn’t hurt a fly,” Carpenter said of his 90-pound dog in a telephone interview with the BDN. “Everybody loved Arzy. Everybody said, ‘Oh, he’s so friendly. So gentle.’ He was an angel in dog form.”
The 28-year-old musician, who has been on the road for 12 years, had hopped a freight train from Lafayette, Louisiana, to Sulphur, Louisiana, with his friend, 21-year-old Logan Laliberte of Auburn. The duo was on their way to stay with friends in Lake Charles, Louisiana, their backpacks, guitars and the 14-month-old Newfoundland-Labrador-golden retriever mix in tow, when they got off the train in the early morning.
“We were exhausted, and as we were walking, it started to rain,” Carpenter said.
They decided to find a place to sleep a little out of the rain, and clambered into the back of an empty box truck that was parked in the lot of the city newspaper, the Southwest Daily News. About 10 minutes after they got in, Carpenter said, they were woken up by a police officer who drew his gun and ordered them to get out.
“We were extremely compliant. We did everything he asked us to do,” Carpenter said, adding that he tied Arzy to a fence with a short leash when Officer Brian Thierbach of the Sulphur Police Department told him to secure his dog.
Thierbach put the men in handcuffs and ordered them to get on the ground, facing away from the dog. Then the officer, who wanted to get their belongings from the truck, asked if the dog was going to bite or attack him, Carpenter recounted.
“I said no, it’s an incredibly friendly dog. He’s a big teddy bear,” he said.
According to Carpenter, eyewitness Eric Midkiff, an employee of the newspaper, saw the officer pet the dog for a few seconds.
“His tongue was out. His tail was wagging. That’s my dog,” Carpenter said. “Arzy maybe did a little sniff, like do you want to play? Then [the officer] jumped down from the back of the truck and shoots my dog in the head. I watched him convulse his last breath and twitch the life out of him.”
Carpenter said that the officer threw their belongings out of the truck, and then he and Laliberte waited for about half an hour until another police vehicle drove up.
“They put on rubber gloves and pulled out a trash bag,” he said. “They stuffed my magnificent dog into this trash bag. I said, ‘You didn’t have to shoot him.’ The officer smiled at me and said, ‘He nipped at my foot.’ Arzy did nothing like that.”
According to the Southwest Daily News, Midkiff said in an official statement to police that Arzy did not attack the officer.
“He also stated that he saw the dog wagging his tail and acting in a friendly manner, and that it was when the dog bumped against Thierbach that the officer immediately responded by shooting the animal,” the newspaper account stated.
Efforts Wednesday to speak with Midkiff were unsuccessful.
According to the article, newspaper employees had called the police department that morning to report two suspicious-looking men with a dog hanging around the paper’s box trucks. The dog was first thought to be a black Rottweiler mix, according to the account.
An official from the Sulphur Police Department told the BDN Wednesday that the city’s mayor and police chief are currently conducting an investigation into the matter in conjunction with the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office and are not releasing any comments.
For Carpenter, who said that he’s had a lot of extraordinary adventures and had a lot of difficult experiences during his years on the road, the death of his dog in this way is not something from which he can easily move on.
“It was completely monstrous, what this man did,” he said. “We’ll be staying here until justice is served to this police officer.”
A Facebook group he started called “Justice for Arzy” was quickly accumulating posts of support on Wednesday afternoon. According to Carpenter, protesters also are planning to picket the Sulphur Police Department on Saturday.
“He thought I was just a train-hopping punk, and he could shoot my dog and get away with it,” Carpenter said. “You messed with the wrong traveler.”
Huh????
Huh????
Translation: He's a drug addled hippie bum.
That still doesn't make it right for a neanderthal under the color of authority to shoot his dog. I would serve the cop the same justice he served my dog, no matter how long it took.
“The officer smiled at me and said, ‘He nipped at my foot.’ “
Officer lying sack of crap will get away with it too.
Drug test the gym rat.
I'll get you, my pretty...
...and your dog too!
We are helping to care for my son’s retired Bomb-sniffing K9, a Belgian Malinois, who is receiving chemotherapy for a deadly brain tumor.
His first K9, a German shepard, was just put to sleep a week ago due to an incurable cancer disease.
This killing hits home, and it sounds like it was totally wrong.
Keep up the investigation of what happened, and if appropriate, let real justice be done.
No cover ups!
What is it with cops and their need to shoot dogs?
BTW, hippies are not too popular in the South.
What is it with cops and their need to shoot dogs?
There are a lot of factors but it boils down to the fact that sickos will seek out a job that gives them power over others. Sadly we have created a society where cops have so much power they can kill dogs and occasionally people without fear of reprisal. Given that power the draw to the psycopath will be even greater and you ain’t seen nothing yet.
If the police leadership do not get a handle on these power hungry sadists, the public’s respect for the law is going to evaporate and they will not be able to control what happens afterwards. It will be ugly.
But the important thing is that the cop went home safe!
Cops carry mace.
Mace must be very similar to what bicycle riders carry to deal with aggressive dogs.
Any cop that shoots without first trying mace should be fired on the spot.
As far as that goes, the stuff sold in bike stores for dog protection is in a can about twice the size of your thumb. There is no reason cops could not buy it on their own if they are that afraid.
The truth is they are not that afraid. They just want to shoot something.
A jerk thing to say.
So what if the guy has nothing and is what you call a hippie.
The fact that he has very little makes his dog even more important to him.
Cops are the ENEMY of the American people.
When was the last time anyone heard of a mailman, meter reader, or a jahovah wittness for that matter get attacked by a dog?
Right to the point Bump.
And I love your screenname too :)
Lord, may the young man find another pup to love soon, and may the policeman meet with justice.
Tatt
Especially YANKEE hippies.
ping
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