As family shrieks, police kill dog, Cooksville TN

Email ^ | 1/09/03 | FlyingA

[FlyingA]

As family shrieks, police kill dog Wednesday, January 8, 2003 Posted: 10:26 PM EST (0326 GMT)

COOKEVILLE, Tennessee (CNN) -- Police video released Wednesday showed a North Carolina family kneeling and handcuffed, who shrieked as officers killed their dog -- which appeared to be playfully wagging its tail -- with a shotgun during a traffic stop.

The Smoak family was pulled over the evening of January 1 on Interstate 40 in eastern Tennessee by officers who mistakenly suspected them of a carjacking. An investigation showed James Smoak had simply left his wallet on the roof of his car at a gas station, and motorists who saw his money fly off the car as he drove away called police.

The family was driving through eastern Tennessee on their way home from a New Year's trip to Nashville. They told CNN they are in the process of retaining a lawyer and considering legal action against the Cookeville, Tennessee, Police Department and the Tennessee Highway Patrol for what happened to them and their dog.

In the video, released by the THP, officers are heard ordering the family, one by one, to get out of their car with their hands up. James Smoak and his wife, Pamela, and 17-year-old son Brandon are ordered onto their knees and handcuffed.

"What did I do?" James Smoak asks the officers.

"Sir, inside information is that you was involved in some type of robbery in Davidson County," the unidentified officer says.

Smoak and his wife protest incredulously, telling the officers that they are from South Carolina and that their mother and father-in-law are traveling in another car alongside them.

The Smoaks told CNN that as they knelt, handcuffed, they pleaded with officers to close the doors of their car so their two dogs would not escape, but the officers did not heed them.

Pamela Smoak is seen on the tape looking up at an officer, telling him slowly, "That dog is not mean. He won't hurt you."

Her husband says, "I got a dog in the car. I don't want him to jump out."

The tape then shows the Smoak's medium-size brown dog romping on the shoulder of the Interstate, its tail wagging. As the family yells, the dog, named Patton, first heads away from the road, then quickly circles back toward the family.

An officer in a blue uniform aims his shotgun at the dog and fires at its head, killing it immediately. For several moments, all that is audible are shrieks as the family reacts to the shooting. James Smoak even stands up, but officers pull him back down.

"Y'all shot my dog! Y'all shot my dog!" James Smoak cries. "Oh my God! God Almighty!" "You shot my dog!" screams his wife, distraught and still handcuffed. "Why'd you kill our dog?" "Jesus, tell me, why did y'all shoot my dog?" James Smoak says.

The officers bring him to the patrol car, and the family calms down, but still they ask the officers for an explanation. One of them says Patton was "going after" the officer.

"No he wasn't, man," James Smoak says. "Y'all didn't have to kill the dog like that."

Brandon told CNN Patton, was playful and gentle -- "like Scooby-Doo" -- and may have simply gone after the beam of the flashlight as he often did at home, when Brandon and the dog would play. The Tennessee Department of Safety, which oversees the Highway Patrol, has said an investigation is under way.

Cookeville Police Chief Robert Terry released a statement on the department's Web site Wednesday night describing the department's regret over the incident.

"I know the officer wishes that circumstances could have been different so he could have prevented shooting the dog," Terry wrote. "It is never gratifying to have to put an animal down, especially a family pet, and the officer assures me that he never displayed any satisfaction in doing so." Terry said he and the vice-mayor of Cookeville met with the family before they left "to convey our deepest sympathies" for the loss of their dog.

"No one wants to experience this kind of thing, and it's very unfortunate that it occurred," he wrote. "If we had the benefit of hindsight, I'm sure some -- if not all of this -- could have been avoided. I believe the Tennessee Highway Patrol feels the same way."

The department is conducting an investigation to determine what, if anything, could have been done differently, he said. Police also plan to be in contact with the Smoak family, Terry said. The Smoaks buried their pet at home. A white cross marks the grave.

[INSENSITIVE GUY]

There's no doubt,if these same cops came up against REAL CRIMINALS they would run crying for their mommies.I hope these cops not only lose their jobs but can't find work anywhere.Justice system,WHO NEEDS IT!

[RCW2001]

I just watched the video of this for the first time. Before viewing, I gave the 'officers' the benefit of doubt that perhaps the dog really did come charging out of the vehicle and 'spooked' the 'officer'.

Bullshit...the pup wanted to play! His family were all down on there knees, a signal to most dogs I know that its time to play...

These aren't officers...their f'ing "Pigs"!!!

[Darnright]

"There's a newspaper columnist in Roanoke who is without a job right now"

A correction. Said columnist was suspended, but has recently been brought back from exile. Shows how carefully I read that paper.

[kaylar]

Go here to another story about this incident. At the very bottom of the page, you will see a link to a discussion about the shooting. Giving that the site is a local TN news source, this should be mostly 'locals' talking, who know what cops in the area are like-maybe even this particular cop.

[kaylar]

Go here to another story about this incident. At the very bottom of the page, you will see a link to a discussion about the shooting. Giving that the site is a local TN news source, this should be mostly 'locals' talking, who know what cops in the area are like-maybe even this particular cop.

[TankerKC]

Where might we all see this unedited raw footage?

[Nov3]

I figured as much I just wanted to make sure that you didn't take one statement out of context!

[matthew_the_brain]

That newspaper columnist was sloppy......anti freeze and/ant poison works much better on mutts that continue to defile, defacate, and deface your property.

[Darnright]

Cute reply. Actually, the columnist had a law with which to solve his dawg problem. Virginia has a dangerous dog law, which puts the screws to those people who keep agressive pooches. If the dog had actually killed the cat (thankfully, that didn't happen), it would have been labeled a dangerous dog by the courts. The owners would then have had to keep the dog in a locked pen at all times. The only time the dog could have been out, would be if it was on a short leash, and it would have had to wear a muzzle.

The owner would have had to carry liability insurance on the animal, which from what I understand costs an arm and 3 legs.

Virginia frowns on people who keep aggressive dogs. The dog can protect its own property, its owner or its litter, but a dog that approaches any individual in an aggressive manner, or that bites someone, is not to be tolerated.

[matthew_the_brain]

Actually, that law does not go quite far enough. We had any common sense in this country, aggressive dogs, especially ones that are prone to violence, would be automatically be put down......no muzzle, no pen, nothing. This, with punative fines and jail time for the owners.

Until we do this, the cases of pit bulls mauling and killing people will go on. Until that time, people have to defend themselves against these monsters that are coddled by their lobotomized owners.

[Bob J]

Bull dog, not Pit Bull.

[Darksheare]

Anyone who has owned a dog and has any amount of intelligence, sorry about that sport but you're out, knows that the dog in the video wasn't a threat.
Why don't you watch it again?
And imagine the sturmtruppen bashing your door in because your neighbor said you're a terrorist. And when you ask them to shut your little poopsy pointer in a room, they wait for it to run in circles with it's tongue out because it's happy to see people. Then they shoot it at point blank range with a shotgun.
Imagine your dog's head flying apart.
Now, how's that?
Sub-sentient intelligence is quite the norm for your kind, isn't it Dinoflagellum?

[Darksheare]

"again, anthropomorphism is a problem in society, stop ascribing human traits, and Rights to flea bags"
It isn't about the dog's rights. It's about MY right to own something without it being destroyed senselkessly by an idiot like you.

[Darksheare]

"It was obviously an accident"

Stop excusing stupidity.
Get a life, oh senseless one.
If that was an accident, then Clinton is a saint.

[Darksheare]

No, people like YOU are impossible to reason with.
You're siding with the people who ignored common sense.
You know, common sense says to shut the door on a car that has dogs in it?
Common sense says that a man, his wife and two kids with a dog wouldn't have car-jacked a car. (That would be impossible to do.)
And even if the woman and kids had been 'kidnapped', teh dog would know the man didn't belong and would have bitten him.
Alternately, if the woman and children had been 'kidnapped' the cops wouldn't have cuffed them as well.

Did you bother to watch the vid?
No?
I suggest you do, mein freund.
Again, imagine that it's your dog, your property being treated like that.

[Darksheare]

You still haven't answered teh question someone put to you.
How do you come to the conclusion that the owner of the dog and his family returning from vacation are THUGS?

Sounds to me like you have a prejudice here.
Trade in your screen-name. You obviously have no brain.

[chkoreff]

When the police are trying to control a situation, isn't it kind of SOP to shoot the dog?

If the police are concerned enought to have an entire family handcuffed and on the ground, they are not going to put up with a dog running around.

I was just up fixing supper and I saw that video on the Abram's report on MSNBC. That dog walked outta that car wagging his tail and playfully sidling up to the officer the way dogs do when they want to be a part of what the "humans" are doing -- and boy, they always do! It was really cute to see -- up until that part where the dog's head gets blown open like a melon from a shotgun blast.

Oh, but it's just a dog -- who cares, right? Wrong. I watched how those officers responded, and when I saw their positions and how they jolted into full response mode, it looked like "THE TRAINING" kicking in. The U.S. have thoroughly militarized their police force, and it shows.

Oh yeah, it's just a dog, and that Scott what's-his-name that got killed in his California home during a no-knock raid was just one guy, and that elderly black gentleman who died of a heart attack during a no-knock raid was just an old man, and Amadou Diallo shouldn't have pulled his wallet on those NY cops, and those folks in Waco were just ignorant wackos. It all doesn't mean a damn thing -- just scattered anecdotes among a sea of good solid Andy Griffith types, right? Wrong again. It is 100%, top-down, symptomatic. Hell, Illinois just let out four death row inmates who were tortured into confession -- that Leroy Orange guy got electric shocks to his balls and an electric rod up his ass. So yeah, everything's just hunky-freakin'-dory, Mr. Gridlock.

[DuncanWaring]

Scott what's-his-name...

Donald Scott.

And don't forget Alberto Sepulveda, eleven years old, laying face down on the floor, blasted in the back by a shotgun-carrying JBT.

[rolling_stone]

that newspaper columnist was sloppy......anti freeze and/ant poison works much better on mutts that continue to defile, defacate, and deface your property.

You are a real piece of work, I wonder if you are part of the human race, even so I hope no one poisons you or yours.

[MinuteGal]

The dog's name was "Patton".

Leni