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."
Gee, Bill...I sure wish I had your clairvoyance!
I see. So you think that it takes "clairvoyance" to recognize that robbers don't bring their wife and kids and dogs and packed luggage with them? Not to mention how cooperative and confused they were. Here's a dollar, buy a clue.
Also known as the "who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?" defense.
There is a certain set of freepers who feel that no actions by law enforcement can ever be wrong. No matter what they always make excuses for law enforcement.
(NOTE TO SELF: Self, get eyes checked -- right after the brain scan.)
About 1996. In Pennsylvania. Was indeed a gun-show promoter. They were allegedly looking for an "unregistered Thompson submachinegun", which was in fact a semi-auto Thompson gun lookalike. Which he no longer owned.
About 1996. In Pennsylvania. Was indeed a gun-show promoter. They were allegedly looking for an "unregistered Thompson submachinegun", which was in fact a semi-auto Thompson gun lookalike. Which he no longer owned.
I once had a Fruit Bat Named Eric.
Damn I can't remember, is memory the first thing to go (or the second or the third)
I'm sure you've got chapter and verse to justify this, too, Mr. W. Sepulchre.
The raid was on May 25, 1994 in Pennsylvania committed against Harry and Theresa Lumplugh. Google for "kitten BATF Lumplugh" for more details.
Let me be the first to suggest letting the family use a shotgun to blow the head off a police dog.
I have never read a comment by any Freeper who believes that. What many of us do believe is that all evidence and information should be available before we convict and hang a cop! There are some freepers who will jump at the chance to attack law enforcement and I am not talking about just the ATF and FBI! Cops are tried and convicted here every day before the evidence is in!
I have yet to see any outrage by LEOs posted here that some freepers won't defend. From the shotgun slaying of a 12 year old, to Waco to Ruby Ridge I have yet to see anything where some freepers didn't jump to the defence of LE.
If police were more selective and critical of their own, it would not be neccssary to make an example of Eric "Dog Killer" Hall. If the headline had been "Cop shoots dog in egregious error, gets fired." it would be over.
As it is, he, and his family if anyone would be married to him, will have to live with the assesment of the majority of the people here for the rest of his life. That video is part of the record forever now, and available all over the planet at the touch of a button. If you were Eric Hall, you'd be feeling a little low by now.
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