Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Davidson deputies shoot bull that they say charged at them (14 times with AR-15/12ga.)
Winston-Salem Journal ^ | 3/4/03 | Patrick Wilson

Posted on 03/04/2003 10:32:55 AM PST by Rebelbase

"Witnesses question whether officers acted appropriately "

Two deputies with the Davidson County Sheriff's Office shot a bull about 14 times Saturday after it charged at them in a residential neighborhood near Tyro Middle School, authorities said.

No one was injured. The bull was alive and walking in its pasture hours after it was shot.

But when - or even if - the bull died was not clear yesterday.

Deputies were called about 11 a.m. to the 2900 block of Michael Road. One caller reported that a bull was charging at cars and people, according to the sheriff's incident report.

Deputies Brandon Cupp and William Sugg said there was a report that a large, white bull apparently broke through a pasture fence by a small utility station on Michael Road. The deputies could not find the bull's owner, and the bull charged several times at deputies and neighbors who had gone outside to help, said Lt. Sam Rabon.

Both deputies shot at the bull when it charged at them, Rabon said.

Sugg fired a 12-gauge shotgun and Cupp fired his handgun. The bull was hit several times in the head and left side from about 15 feet away.

"They were in fear that they were in imminent danger of being injured by the bull if they didn't shoot it," Rabon said. "Obviously, nobody wants to go out anywhere and shoot an animal. It was a last resort."

Cupp then got an AR-15 rifle from his car to kill the bull, the report said. The AR-15 is a civilian version of a military assault rifle that fires a relatively small bullet. "They realized they had shot the bull and it was probably suffering," Rabon said.

"The logical thing to think was we need to put it down and put it out of its misery."

Cupp and Sugg shot the bull again numerous times, but it jumped a fence and went back into the pasture with other cows.

The gunshots seemed to have little effect on the bull, Rabon said. It was walking in the pasture later.

According to reports filed by the deputies, the bull was shot about 14 times.

The owner of the pasture, Wayne Bame, was out of town Saturday. But a neighbor reached Bame and his wife by telephone, and they called Fred Mock, the superintendent of the Davidson County Schools.

Mock went to the scene and told deputies that he was related to the owner of the bull and that the owner was out of town.

Several hours after the bull was shot, Mock told deputies to stop trying to kill it, Rabon said. He told the deputies that the bull might live in spite of its injuries.

If the bull's injuries were too severe, it would be taken to a slaughterhouse, Mock told deputies.

The sheriff's office said it did not know the name of the bull's owner. Mock declined to comment yesterday on what happened to the bull, or give the name of his relative who owns it. The bull wasn't in its pasture yesterday.

Several neighbors watched the incident and questioned the deputies' decision to shoot.

Sam Hailey of Michael Road said that his wife called 911 when they saw the bull loose, but said that the animal could have been lured back into the pasture using cabbage as bait.

Hailey told deputies to cut the metal fence to let the bull back in the pasture, but the deputies didn't want to do that because cows in the pasture would get out, the sheriff's office said.

"It was a humongous bull," Hailey said. "It was one hell of a pretty bull, and they could have avoided shooting it."

The deputies at the scene told Hailey to go inside

his house, but he refused, the sheriff's office said.

Rabon said that the deputies shot to protect themselves, and that they were in a tough spot because the bull's owner and the property owner could not be found


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events; US: North Carolina
KEYWORDS: bull; donutwatch
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-99 next last
To: Rebelbase
Don't know what their problem was. I've put down many huge critters with just one .22 long rifle between the eyes. It has never failed to work with just one shot.
21 posted on 03/04/2003 10:55:27 AM PST by nightdriver
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: null and void; Rebelbase
Sungirl ping

Heh heh! Trying to stir up a hornets' nest, eh?
I LIKE IT.


22 posted on 03/04/2003 10:57:08 AM PST by Constitution Day
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: *Donut watch
http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list
23 posted on 03/04/2003 10:58:10 AM PST by Libertarianize the GOP (Ideas have consequences)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: hchutch
I seem to remember something in the paper about a police BBQ this weekend.


24 posted on 03/04/2003 10:58:31 AM PST by Rebelbase
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: Rebelbase; RobRoy
I didn't know she had been banned.
25 posted on 03/04/2003 10:58:37 AM PST by Constitution Day
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Constitution Day
Who? Sweet innocent ~.~ me???
26 posted on 03/04/2003 11:01:22 AM PST by null and void (Bwahahahahaha....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: Rebelbase
Cupp then got an AR-15 rifle from his car to kill the bull, the report said. The AR-15 is a civilian version of a military assault rifle that fires a relatively small bullet.

This just makes me laugh. Such a description is never used by the media when Joe Civilian has an AR-15. When in the hands of us pesants, its a "high-powered assault sniper rifle".

27 posted on 03/04/2003 11:02:08 AM PST by FreeTally
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Rebelbase
We had a bull once who was off the ranch in someone elses pasture. He was wild as all get out and My husband and 2 sons had no luck rounding him up on horses in rocky terrain. They came up with a plan to tranquilize him. They didn't have a tranquilizer gun so they rigged up arrows with syringes full of tranquilizer.

The first shot went as planned and they followed him on 4-wheelers and shot him again. He ran but they managed to hit him again. He had a triple dose of tranquilizer and he charged the 4-wheeler. my youngest son managed to get away but just barely. He didn't want any more to do with the bull so my other son went after him. When he charged him and he just barely missed knocking him off the 4-wheeler he went and asked my husband what they should do. My husband handed him a gun and said shoot him between the eyes. He wasn't very wild after that!

28 posted on 03/04/2003 11:05:11 AM PST by tiki
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Rebelbase
Many hundreds have been killed or injured because an idiot farmer didn't keep his fence up and a cow got out on the highway.
29 posted on 03/04/2003 11:05:38 AM PST by moyden
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Rebelbase
They forgot the part about the "furtive move for the waistband."
30 posted on 03/04/2003 11:07:00 AM PST by eno_
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FreeTally

With no beef in site, Sheriff Hege takes aim at a bass supper.

31 posted on 03/04/2003 11:08:14 AM PST by Rebelbase
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: Chancellor Palpatine
It's quite normal for people to think a bovine is "charging them", but had that been the case there would have been sheetmetal and hair everywhere. When cows, bulls, steers go thru fence they tend to do really stupid things because they are disoriented by the unusual surroundings. They tend to approach large things like cars, trucks, dumpsters, and mailboxes thinking they will be greeted by a fellow bovine.

Good thing that farmer didn't have a livestock dog. They'd have definately shot it while it visciously chased the bull back into the pasture. My Aussie Cattle Dog will chase down and herd buffalo. She can grip down on their tails and dangle like she's on a tow rope.

Do you guys know how dangerous these two cops will be until they do kill something now? They are out shopping for anti-tank missiles to use next go-round.

32 posted on 03/04/2003 11:11:01 AM PST by blackdog ("But that's what I do" A quote from my Border Collie)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Rebelbase
A 12 gauge to the head of a good-sized bull is merely an annoyance.
33 posted on 03/04/2003 11:12:20 AM PST by SoDak
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Rebelbase
"Obviously, nobody wants to go out anywhere and shoot an animal. It was a last resort."

No hunters in that PD nor any farmboys. I've never head of anyone haveing to kill a valuable stock animal in order to get it back into a pasture. Sounds more like just a couple of yahoos with badges and guns.

34 posted on 03/04/2003 11:13:01 AM PST by fella
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: blackdog
I agree. It seems like so many of these suburban cops are just champing at the bit in an effort to blast something/anything. We just recently lost a local cop who shot and killed a raccoon on a family's back step eating garbage. The shell ricocheted off the step into a window in a neighboring house. Idiot.
35 posted on 03/04/2003 11:16:15 AM PST by SoDak
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: fella
Thats the bizzare part of this whole episode. The road where this occured is nothing but farmland and pastures. If the deputies had waited a few minutes someone with common sense could have been located who could have offered a solution other than slaughter.
36 posted on 03/04/2003 11:18:14 AM PST by Rebelbase
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: moyden
My insurance policy requires top hot wire, woven wire, and two hot bottom wires on all sides facing highway. If you do not feed your animals, the best fencing in the world will not hold an overstocked pasture.

Last month my Suffolk ram did charge my tractor. I thought it was funny that he kept smashing into the bale spears on the back. He then came around front. In one blow, he shoved the radiator thru the fan and water pump pulleys. He drove that steel about eight inches. It cost me a fortune to fix. Since breeding season was over it cost him too. He is in that Alpo lamb and rice can at the store now.

37 posted on 03/04/2003 11:20:11 AM PST by blackdog ("But that's what I do" A quote from my Border Collie)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: blackdog
It's also quite normal for bulls to kill people. Happened last summer about five miles from my farm when some guy tried to cut across a pasture. And this wasn't an Angus, it was a dairy bull. You can't be too careful around 1800 lbs. of muscle.
38 posted on 03/04/2003 11:22:57 AM PST by Stay the course (primates capitulards et toujours en quĂȘte de fromages)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: Rebelbase
Mayberry-2003 ping.

Hell, with Barney's terrible shooting, he would've shot himself and Andy in the foot with an AR-15.
Don't even get me started on what Ernest T. Bass could've done with one. :)

39 posted on 03/04/2003 11:24:30 AM PST by Constitution Day
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Rebelbase; Squantos
I eat animals I kill as a rule and hardly qualify as a PETA enthusiast but dammit...I hope this tuff nut Bull is getting some proper medical attention. He deserves it. Couple of local Barney's unload their firepower on him and he survives. He's bound to be carrying around a fair amount of lead in him.

Guess the Barneys will be asking for a 600 Nitro Express to back up the old CAR-15 or Ithaca pump from now on...LOL.

In my youth, I shot a cow with a .357 mag and she dropped like a rock.

Squantos....sounds like Howdah time doesn't it?

and yes I miss Sungirl too....
40 posted on 03/04/2003 11:24:54 AM PST by wardaddy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-99 next last

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson