Posted on 08/06/2017 1:21:56 PM PDT by Brad from Tennessee
A devastated family wants answers after their beloved Catahoula hound dog was shot and killed last month in their front yard by an Ocoee police officer. But a police report released this week sheds little light on what happened.
Stevens Bertrand, a school resource officer at Ocoee High, shot the 11-year-old dog named Duke in the head outside Charlie and Lisa Brooks’ home on July 17.
“I couldn’t believe something like that happened. I was completely shocked,” Charlie Brooks said.
The incident has prompted questions and outrage from the Brooks family, who expressed frustration at the Police Department’s vague description of the shooting in its official report and the lack of disciplinary action taken against Bertrand.
Ocoee Police Lt. Bill Wagner declined to discuss the events that led to Bertrand firing his gun, citing an ongoing internal investigation. He said an Internal Affairs investigator reached out to the family but has not received a response.
According to the police report, on the day Duke was shot, Bertrand and two other school resource officers were assigned to patrol Starke Lake, across from the Brooks’ home on East Silver Star Road.
Wagner said marine patrolling is a common assignment for officers in the summertime.
The three officers spotted a boat that they suspected was in violation of city codes. According to their report, the boat was “at risk of becoming derelict” and had tags that weren’t “affixed prominently. . ."
(Excerpt) Read more at orlandosentinel.com ...
No excuse to kill this elderly beloved family pet. The “officer” should have been fired immediately.
WTF, over?
A Chihuahua? Somebody needs their man card permanently revoked and fired to boot..
They are taught when at the academy to shot the dog when confronted. It does two things. 1. eliminates a potential threat and 2. Shows everyone else just who is in charge at the scene.
I will bet that it was part of the officers initial training and part of the ongoing training at the local department.
Our school resource officer is a sworn leo. Great guy. Has a tough job dealing with the ignorants in our middle schools. We also have a SRO full time at our high school. IN the past ten years, our little city has imported all the problems of inner city chaos. Gangs drugs and violence against staff/students has skyrocketed. We are moving. Soon.
It does two things:
1. Shows everyone they are out of control and cowardly to an effeminate level.
2. Demonstrates undebatably to the public that they lack the judgement to detirmine what a threat is.
What’s a school cop doing patrolling on a boat? Is the school surrounded by a moat?
“...the boat was “at risk of becoming derelict” and had tags that weren’t “affixed prominently. . .”
Therefore, your dog must die.
No, Catahoula Leopard Dog/cur. They are not very well known but they are far from being like a tiny Chi.
My son already knows to be very wary.
Yup, I’m breedist. I love Shepherds, but even then I’m no fool. Shepherds HAVE been in attacks and have had temperament problems. Why can’t these asses stop denying it for their preferred hound and actually work on stopping it?
Tax collectors for the police state, are always hard at work looking for more revenue.
Now there's an idea!
you are correct of course but when you are trying to establish a gestapo attitude and want to act like a thug shooting a dog is well it is just plain wrong on all counts.
From what I gather, the cops saw the boat on the dead dog’s property. they left the lake and sought to confront the owner of the boat, which may have been out of the water or otherwise merely on the dead dog’s property.
after the killing, the cops gave the owner the runaround when he tried to submit a witness report. They circled the wagons, and for that should serve heavy prison time.
My error. Whatever the breed, I am a strong advocate for advanced training for police officers in dealing with canines.
I would really like to see a device an officer could wear their belt that makes dogs keep their distance, something subsonic?
Per capita (and I’m applying that term to dogs for illustrative purposes), Pits pale in comparison to Chows as far as bites. Even Labs have a higher incidence of biting (though that includes Lab mixes, and it’s anyone’s guess what genetics those dogs possess).
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