The Smoaks appear on CNN
Posted on 01/08/2003 11:35:54 PM PST by JohnHuang2
The Tennessee policeman who shot and killed a family's dog during a terrorizing traffic stop took just three seconds to slay the animal after it jumped out its owners' car, reports the Cookeville Herald-Citizen.
Law-enforcement authorities released a videotape of the incident yesterday, which shows the three-second time frame on the tape's counter.
The Cookeville police officer who shot the dog, Eric Hall, has since been reassigned to administrative duties while the incident is probed.
As WorldNetDaily reported, the Smoak family was returning to their home in North Carolina on New Year's Day when three police cars swarmed their vehicle on Interstate 40 in what appeared to be a traffic stop.
The Smoaks appear on CNN |
A Tennessee Highway Patrol officer broadcast orders over a bullhorn for driver James Smoak to toss the keys out of the car window, get out with his hands up and walk backwards to the rear of the car. Smoak obeyed and was subsequently ordered onto his knees and handcuffed at gunpoint. Officers similarly handcuffed his wife, Pamela, and their 17-year-old son with their guns drawn.
As the troopers were putting the family members inside the patrol car, one of the Smoak family dogs, a boxer-bulldog mix named Patton, came out of the car and headed toward one of the Cookeville officers who were assisting the THP troopers.
"That officer had a flashlight on his shotgun, and the dog was going toward that light, and the officer shot him, just blew his head off," Pamela Smoak told the Herald-Citizen. "We had begged them to shut the car doors so our dogs wouldn't get out, [but] they didn't do that."
The Smoaks had been pulled over by mistake after someone reported seeing the car getting on the highway with cash flying out from behind the vehicle. James Smoak, it turns out, had mistakenly left his wallet on the roof of the car when he stopped to get gas. Someone within the THP reportedly thought a robbery had occurred, though it turns out none had.
Hall claimed he was acting in self-defense.
"I yelled at the dog to get back, but it attempted to circle me to attack, so I felt that I had no option but to protect myself," the officer wrote in a police report.
Police Chief Bob Terry told the Herald-Citizen, "We are aware there is a lot of criticism out there over this incident, and we want to take [Hall] off the road and let him perform other duties while we get this all resolved." Terry stressed that Hall was not being punished for killing the dog.
The Herald-Citizen reports that "to an average viewer, the scene recorded on the video may not demonstrate the aggressiveness or the threat the officer said he experienced as the dog came toward him."
Terry said he will have two unrelated police agencies perform independent reviews of the incident.
"We once again extend our deepest concerns to the Smoak family for their loss," Terry said. "We know this was a terrible experience for them, and we truly wish that we could undo the events that occurred on the night of Jan. 1."
The Smoaks recently told their story on CNN's "Connie Chung Tonight."
Speaking of Patton, son Brandon Smoak told Chung, "He's the gentlest dog that I've ever been around. He's like Scooby Doo. He wasn't mean at all."
From the time the dog left the car until the shot was THREE SECONDS.
It was less than THREE MINUTES from the time the car was pulled over until the dog was shot.
BTW, I went to the Channel 5 news website and didn't see any "latest report" about the dog being part Pitbull. Could you provide a link or title of the article you read?
So if someone sees a lot of cash flying out of or off of a car, they shouldn't call the police? Or if the police get such a report, they should ignore it?
I don't know the area. Here we have a lot of meth labs. But other places it could be a nice guy who left his wallet on the roof and Andy Griffin would pull him over to hand it back to him, while Barney picked up all the stray bills for him.
Can't believe I let that go by unchallenged. I'm slipping in my old age!
Look, I was a kid, I got bit by a dog, and that was that.
Maybe it was different where you grew up, but in my neighborhood kids had fights, bloodied noses, fell out of trees and broke bones, and got bit by dogs.
The parents knew those were the risks of growing up and being a kid.
No one tried to blame others for their own kid's stupidity and nobody gave a psychobabbling thought about questions of whether we "deserved" it or not.
No, that isn't my evidence that Hall was going after the dog. Is Hall's "backing up when he shot the dog" your only evidence that he wasn't going after the dog?
No wonder you refuse to admit he was backing up when he shot the dog. That would ruin your case.
Would it? You mean, of course, my saying that Hall moved forward from his covering position to shoot the dog intentionally?
Tell ya' what. You tell me where Hall was at 17:20:38. Find him. Where was he at that time?
Hall's a liar, but it isn't my job to prove it. Tell ya' something else. That lying lunatic almost blew Smoak's head off too after he'd finished with the dog's.
It's clear on the tape that he turns to cover the Smoaks again but doesn't advance (like you claim he did with the dog). In fact he stands perfectly still, and doesn't move an inch for the rest of the tape. Had he shot at Mr. Smoak from his position he would have also hit both the of the cops holding Smoak. So, no, he didn't "almost blow Smoak's head off too".
Hall's back is to the camera after he shoots the dog and Smoak is yelling "Ya'll shot my dog, why'd you shoot my dog?" We hear the voice of the TV female person .
Hall is most definitely moving sideways toward Mr. Smoak. My details are accurate. It's probably your failure to understand the clip isn't linear...if you watch it again, you should see exactly what I've described. I've done all I can do here. If you watch this clip as said, and focus on Hall as described, you will see I am right. If you still can't see it, you're blind and I can't help you.
sue Sue Sue SUE SSSSSUUUUUUUEEEEE!!!!!
That's Funny!
The police need to be de-militarized and a workable procedure for dealing with animal occupants of stopped vehicles should be created. The officer in question should apologize, and the family should be modestly compensated (by settlement). As for me, I'm going to restrain my dogs while transporting them from now on.
Part II Of Exclusive Interview With Cookeville Police Officer Eric Hall "Moments later one of the dogs, a boxer/bull terrier mix named Patton, jumped from the car."
Part II Of Exclusive Interview With Cookeville Police Officer Eric Hall "Moments later one of the dogs, a boxer/bull terrier mix named Patton, jumped from the car."
That is a quote from Hall, hardly unbiased in this. He is spinning the story to make you believe the dog was something it wasn't. What if he said "Moments later one of the dogs, a Godzilla/Rodan mix named Patton, jumped from the car"? It still would not change Patton into a Godzilla/Rodan mix, just as him saying "boxer/bull terrrier mix" does not change Patton into a boxer/bull terrier.
Actually, it is a statement witten by a reporter, i.e., no quotes around it and no reference made to Hall or any other source. It is also spoke by a reporter in one of the video segments on the newschannel5 website, not as a quote of Hall, but as a fact. Maybe its wrong, I don't know, but other reporters write stories stating that the dog was a "1 1/2-year-old pit bull-boxer mix":
"I don't ever want to see this happen to anybody else. That's why we can't let this go away," said James Smoak, who owned the 1 1/2-year-old pit bull-boxer mix named Patton." Police shoot vacationing family's dog by mistake By JOHN GEROME, Associated Press Writer
'The governor said he was "disappointed" and "outraged" that the 1 1/2-year-old pit bull-boxer mix was killed as the Smoaks returned from a Nashville vacation to Saluda, N.C.' Tenn. governor apologizes to N.C. family over shooting of dog By COLIN FLY Associated Press Writer.
"Our animal control officers haven't had to shoot a dog in the past 10 years. The training is going to be a really positive, wonderful thing."
Doesn't the juxtaposition of the above two statements beg the question: Is police training regarding shooting people equally defective? If animal control officers had ZERO situations where deadly force was required against a dog, one wonders if a similar goal regardin police chases, etc. would reduce -perhaps eliminate - fatalities.
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