Posted on 12/08/2009 3:31:18 PM PST by The Magical Mischief Tour
A woman has filed suit against the Washington Park police officer who she says accidentally shot her in the leg.
Linda Hicks claims she called police to her house at 5731 Portland on Dec. 1, 2008, to request that her son be removed due to his disruptive behavior.
Responding to Hicks' request, defendant Washington Park police officer Donald Williams arrived at Hicks' residence where he arrested Hicks' son for an outstanding warrant, according to the complaint filed Nov. 30 in St. Clair County Circuit Court.
"As the officers were taking the plaintiff's son to the squad car, plaintiff's dog barked at Officer Williams," the suit states. "Apparently startled, Williams discharged his official firearm twice in the direction of the dog. The bullet or the ricochet of the bullet struck plaintiff in the leg."
Because of the incident, Hicks sustained temporary and permanent injuries, incurred medical costs and has been prevented from attending to her usual duties, the complaint says.
Hicks blames Williams for discharging his firearm contrary to policy, for discharging his firearm when he knew it would result in injury and for discharging his firearm in the absence of a threat to him.
The village of Washington Park is also named as a defendant because it is allegedly liable for Williams' actions.
In the two-count suit, Hicks seeks a judgment of more than $100,000, plus costs.
She will be represented by Philip B. Afeld and Lanny Darr of Schrempf, Kelly, Napp and Darr in Alton.
St. Clair County Circuit Court case number: 09-L-639.
“To blame this dog owner/law abiding citizen for having her dog shot at and herself wounded shows a brain that is in sore need of a transplant(that would be yours).”
I really should have used a sarcasm tag about the plaintiff being injured. My apologies.
To believe these dogs, owned by a woman who needs the help of police to remove her own son from her house, only barked, after reading this short article quoting the “suit”, shows brains that I might consider rabid. The comments that stem from this kind of thinking don’t seem as stupid as they do mad.
I agree, the cop was reckless.
Possibly way out of line, if you can believe what the “suit” says.
But, definitely reckless.
‘it states, and i quote [from the “suit” in the article]* “Williams discharged his official firearm twice in the direction of the dog.” ‘
If the lawyer’s suit proves to be the truth, I agree.
*Maybe I’ve seen too many enhanced statements from lawyers to take them at their word. The same could be said for the words of reporters in articles.
The time I’ve spent with the chronically homeless, alcoholics, drug addicts, etc. has jaded me to the way stories like this go down. The people that get the kind of attention from the police this lady needs have great difficulty with taking responsibility for their situations. And yes, I’ve seen most of them let their dogs be a real problem. No discipline.
There is a lot more to this story than the article covers.
Calling people nazis is NOT a way to get your point across unless you want us to think you are a loon.
If you call the cops to your home, take care of your damn dog! Put it in a room, lock it up, put a leash on it.
Unless the police are serving a no-knock warrant, most of these dogs shooting could have probably been avoided if the owner woke up and thought about how their dog would react to an unknown cop coming into an already volatile situation.
Plenty of blame to go around.
I absolutely agree with you that there are definitely two sides to every story, but I am seriously not getting this whole thing with cops and shooting dogs. This is not exactly an isolated incident, you know?
But we were taught "Do not shoot the dog!" in the academy except when the dog is absolutely about to cause you or someone else a physical injury.
I do think a lot of the cops we read articles about are a tad quick on the draw. That being said, we only read about those kind of cops. You never read an article about the thousands of cops who interact daily with dogs and do not pull the trigger. So let's keep it in perspective.
On an unrelated note, I'm going to FRmail you.
Love it.
I’m gonna steal that one.
Definitely.
I’m reminded of several situations where the cops were called in to “help” in family situations. One, where a deaf and developmentally-disabled guy was wielding a RAKE in Detroit, and another where a family member was freaking out in the kitchen.
I both cases, the family met the cops and explained the situation. In both situations, the cop charged in and killed the guy. They called the family for help and the cop escalates the situation through confrontation, resulting in a shooting.
“It seems to be a lot of dog shootings by cops lately. Never use to be that way”
+++++++++
It may be that there is more reporting of dogs being shot, it may be that there are more people and dogs as the population grows, who knows. “It seems...” does not make a case. If I was a cop and a dog was attacking me, I would probably not be bitten as in fact I would be expecting an attack. The PD should have policy the officers are trained by for just such incidents (taser, pepper spray, bean bag shotgun, or lethal gunfire, whatever). If this particular PD does not, you can bet they soon will have such policy.
We had a case here in N. AZ where a man was shot because he would not call off his dogs. The shooter was convicted and sent to the big house but was later released on appeal when he was found to have acted in self defense. I would have acted the same is his situation. People’s dogs can be weapons and should be handled with similar precautions as firearms. I usually keep large Akitas myself and I know good and well I don’t want someone’s big dog threatening me, so as much as it is up to me, they can’t get into a situation where someone is threatened.
Don’t cops have pets as kids?
OK on the nazi thing.
Your posts, and the posts of many others on this thread make it clear to me that your thinking I am a loon is not worth being upset over.
I’ll agree that people should be doing that, however if you’re calling the cops there’s probably other things going on that might be distracting you from paying attention to your animals.
I just can’t imagine actually pulling my gun out as a CCW and shooting an animal running towards me unless it was a cougar or a wolf or something.
I carry pepper spray mostly for dogs, and the cops have that option too.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.