Texas LEO shoots family dog at wrong address

[Pacifist]

In the interest of officer safety, and in order to prevent such potentially dangerous and/or injurious events from occurring in the future, new departmental guidelines have already been issued instructing officers to first empty their duty weapons into the passenger compartment of any vehicle prior to making any approach:

http://www.click2houston.com/news/monke ... index.html

[EEllis]

Again since they executed the warrant on the wrong house the police department should at least pony up for the vet bills.

They didn't execute a warrant at the wrong house. The warrant was for a person not an address. The defendant didn't live at his given address so they were checking other locations for him. The address was one of those other locations where they were going to do a stop and knock to see if they could locate the defendant or any possible info. They didn't get lost or type the wrong address into the GPS they were attempting to locate a person who gave a bad address.

Now mind you I have no idea if the shooting was necessary or not but even if it was legal while the dept may not want to accept any liability I think as a goodwill gesture they could still claim justification and help pay for vet bills.

[EEllis]

In the interest of officer safety, and in order to prevent such potentially dangerous and/or injurious events from occurring in the future, new departmental guidelines have already been issued instructing officers to first empty their duty weapons into the passenger compartment of any vehicle prior to making any approach:

http://www.click2houston.com/news/monke ... index.html

dang no good Carnies.

[VoiceofReason]

everyone else, not in LE, that has to deal with dogs in similar situations, is legally required to accept whatever risk such contact entails, and for the most part, are allowed no recourse to deadly force.

Please site your source.

By entering your property, a utility worker or anyone else for that matter does not forfeit his/her right to self defence up to and including deadly force. If your dog attacks someone coming to your front door, that person can kill your dog if necessary to protect themselves, then sue you.

I've never heard of a utility worker, letter carrier, or most other such people likely to show up on my property, that is allowed to carry a deadly weapon. The postal service most definitely prohibits letter carriers from possessing deadly weapons on duty. If a utility worker enters my fenced, gated (and locked) property and I have not contracted with that utility for any service, he is trespassing. I happen to work in the electric utility industry, for a VERY gun friendly company, and I can assure you that any meter reader who entered a customer's property armed would be fired (assuming the company found out). If he killed a customer's dog he would be fired. Some utility easements expressly forbid entering property with a gun in possession. And anyway, the company would expect that employee to contact the homeowner or person receiving service and ask them to secure their dog. That is because for those of us not in LE, there are consequences for killing our customer's pets.

If my dog is running loose in a front yard, especially in a place where there is a leash law, and someone is attacked by my dog, he can sue, and I would not desire to see him punished for defending himself. If I found my dog attacking someone I would shoot it myself (at least if they weren't trespassing). That's not the situation here, where the officer was in the wrong location, and entered a fenced yard through a closed gate. Where I live, with my gate shut, they'd either have to call me or break the lock, and breaking the lock would be criminal trespass. There is either a contract or implied contract allowing entry for utility workers and deliverymen. Someone who enters my property without consent, unsolicited, or without such implied consent, is going to get charged with trespassing. I see them with a gun in their hand something more serious is likely to happen.

As I stated in another post, I was bitten twice while working for Bell. I had to pepper two or three other dogs. It has been so long I can’t remember. A Sheppard bit me on the upper front part of the leg and another time a medium size dog came up behind me and bit me above the ankle. Both were quick one bite attacks. The Sheppard stood and confronted me after bighting me and the owner came to the door. Had the Sheppard tried for another bite, I would have stuck a large screwdriver in him a few times. I would have no problem suing the owner and Bell for firing me.

Edited to add:
I was dispatched to repair the phone at the address where the Sheppard bit me. The gate wasn’t locked, no signs, and I was halfway to the door when the dog came around the house.

I wasn’t even on private property when the medium size dog bit me. I was on common property, walking the easement looking for a terminal. He bit me then ran.

[MotherBear]

We have already established that the law, and most people, don't consider an unposted, unlocked gate to mean "STAY OUT!"

I'm not a lawyer. I'm genuinely asking. I always considered a fence (gated or not) to mean I better have a good reason to cross it. 30.05 says notice includes "fencing or other enclosure obviously designed to exclude intruders or to contain livestock". It doesn't say anything that gates have to be locked.

So maybe I'm rare when thinking it's probably not ok (in fact dangerous) to start opening people's gates and wondering in their fenced backyards (especially if there are no meters back there). But under the law does a 6 foot fence have to have locked gates for it to be "obviously designed to exclude intruders"?

I think a lot of folks are assuming this is a standard suburban yard with no fence out front and a 6-foot privacy fence out back. I can't say for sure (haven't seen a specific address), but this is out on a county road in Liberty Hill. I grew up not far from there, and last time I was out there it was mostly rural. Most likely this was a wire fence of some sort, maybe 4' high, with an unlocked gate. In my experience, the general rule is that if you have a reason to be there, you open the gate, close it behind you, and go knock at the door. Heck, a lot of those fences aren't too well maintained so you just slip through the wire (did it all the time growing up, and so did my neighbors). Some of those places, you're even going to have to drive or walk a bit to get to the house. Most likely, there was no good way of getting the occupants' attention without knocking on the door -- which is what any other visitor would do, too. I doubt the officer was going around to the back of the house (I read that the dogs came from behind the house and the boy was back there, but not that the officer went that way) or otherwise entering a really secured area.

Living in the suburbs now, I'd find it weird if someone entered my backyard looking for me, and a little uncomfortable if they weren't friends or family. But odds are good this was just the standard approach to the house. When I was a kid, our property in Leander was fully fenced. If someone wanted to approach the door, they had to pass through an unlocked gate and we expected that. People who didn't know us well came to the front door, which was the most obvious and accessible gate. Friends and neighbors came to the back door. We had a "beware of dog" sign, but just so people knew to close the gate. If the dogs had really been a threat to anyone, we'd have kept them out of the front yard where strangers might enter.

All of this is just generalities, but maybe some perspective on the fenced/gated issue. I lived in Leander a lot of my life and got along pretty well with the LEOs I knew there (I worked for the local paper and did a citizens' academy, so I had a fair bit of contact with them). They weren't perfect, but as good as any others I've encountered. I'm waiting for more information before I'm willing to crucify one of their officers.

[jimlongley]

As I stated in another post, I was bitten twice while working for Bell. I had to pepper two or three other dogs. It has been so long I can’t remember. A Sheppard bit me on the upper front part of the leg and another time a medium size dog came up behind me and bit me above the ankle. Both were quick one bite attacks. The Sheppard stood and confronted me after bighting me and the owner came to the door. Had the Sheppard tried for another bite, I would have stuck a large screwdriver in him a few times. I would have no problem suing the owner and Bell for firing me.

Edited to add:
I was dispatched to repair the phone at the address where the Sheppard bit me. The gate wasn’t locked, no signs, and I was halfway to the door when the dog came around the house.

I wasn’t even on private property when the medium size dog bit me. I was on common property, walking the easement looking for a terminal. He bit me then ran.

ROFL Not to totally hijack a pretty worn out thread, but you remind me of some of my bites. I was walking around a house that had been converted into multiple apartments, trying to find the one that was having a phone installed. On the front of the house was a "Beware of Dog" sign that had obviously been there for years, and behind the house almost buried in the snow was a dog house that showed no sign of recent habitation. I made it three quarters of the way around the house before the dog snuck up behind me and took a chunk out of my butt. He was chained up in the garage and there were no signs of him, that I noticed, as I passed between the house and the garage, and I escaped by leaping over the top of a snow berm, a jump I could not have accomplished without the impetus of the sudden attack.

The dog hooked the seam of my Levi's and tore the jeans right down to the ankle on each side, leaving me wearing essentially a skirt, with blood trickling down into my right boot. I immediately climbed into my truck and drove back to the garage and notified the garage secretary that I was going home (off the clock) to change my britches because they were torn. She pulled a little sewing kit out of her desk and offered to stitch them up for me, and I told her that they were beyond that kind of repair. At this point I did not realize how bad my injury was (it was tough to see) and didn't know how much blood was all over my legs and butt. When I turned to show her how bad the pants were torn, she saw all the blood and insisted on getting me transported to the hospital for treatment. Three stitches to sew up the gash.

I have also been "mauled" by an attack Chihuahua, which left horrible looking chew marks on the ankle of my boot. I count it as a bite, but it did not result in any personal physical damage, other than leaving permanent marks on my boot.

[VMI77]

You're a real champion of the strawman argument, unless you're really obtuse. The whole thrust of what several people have posted, including me, is that everyone BUT law enforcement has to face consequences for killing someone's dog on their property, especially when it is inside a fenced yard. Mamabearcali explained how some companies handle entering fenced yards. No one not employed by LE is even allowed to carry weapons with which they can kill dogs while they are carrying out their duties. If cops faced just the same consequences as utility workers --being fired-- the number of dogs being shot like this would be greatly reduced. Everyone else seems to be able to conduct their business without killing dogs, and LE should be able to do the same. You can make up all the different scenarios you want but it won't change the fact that LE doesn't face any consequences for killing people's pets, even when they are clearly in the wrong.....but then, they rarely face consequences for getting the wrong address and killing innocent people either.

Bull. No strawman argument to say getting fired by a private employer is different than a cop being prosecuted. I'm sorry if you are upset that a meter reading company would have different policies than a police dept but thats reality. What an employer does is their business the law is a different story you are the one who was trying to mix them probably because you can't make your point legitimately. Because you are wrong on the facts and your logic is non-existent. Personally I think you are letting your issues with cop color your reality a bit but so be it. There is no law that would keep private citizens with CHL's from legally entering private property. If while on that property conducting legal and reasonable activities, and this would be based on court cases not what every individual wacko thinks as reasonable, an individual is faced with a situation where the use of force would be ok on public property then they use force on private property is also OK.

No one not employed by LE is even allowed to carry weapons with which they can kill dogs while they are carrying out their duties.

Yeah show me that law.

Geez, another strawman.....when did I say anything about LE being "prosecuted??" I, and several others here, have talked about "consequences." With one exception, I haven't specified any particularly desired consequences: I stated outright that if police were fired, as someone not in LE would be, the number of pet killings would be reduced. And while I believe in accountability I'm not a big fan of the prison-industrial complex and the criminalization of everything.

Show you the law? OK, no one who can put a coherent sentence together is that obtuse, so it's obvious you're choosing to use non-sequiturs and straw men. Unlike you, who said you're done with me, I am done with you. Misunderstandings and disagreements are one thing, but I'm just way too laze to continue exchanges with someone who thrives on deliberate misdirection and/or what may be a huge case of cognitive dissonance

[VMI77]

I just don't see how we can accept the double standard like we do whether it be "department policy" or not. Especially considering the cop was at the wrong location.

Inconsistency in the application of the law, double standards and certain people getting a pass on things that would get a mere citizen thrown in jail is what leads to a lot of the "us against them" attitudes so many complain about.

I read something interesting earlier today: Since 2010, there have been 228 dogs shot by police officers in Houston alone( I really didn't think the number would have been anywhere near that high). The Department said it had ruled EVERY ONE of the 228 OIS (officer involved shootings) as justified in accordance with departmental policies. That's impressive...not a even one of the officers made a mistake or were found to be at fault in a single instance out of 228 shootings. I also read this from a report issued by the US Dept. of Justice in 2012: The report" emphasized that serious dog bites in the line of duty are very rare, and no particular breed is especially dangerous" (despite so many of the officers statements that they thought it was a pit bull), "so officers have little reason to feel fear when encountering a canine in the performance of their duties." It concluded by saying: "When an officer shoots a dog that doesn't constitute a serious threat, the safety of his fellow officers and bystanders are compromised and put at risk, and the trust and respect of the community is significantly eroded." This discussion certainly proves that statement to be correct.

So, let me get this straight.....when the police do something wrong, we hear that they're just human and make mistakes, yet when they evaluate their performance, they find perfection. That's quite an astonishing record. Sounds like they're as perfect as the police in Las Vegas.

[VMI77]

FAMILY FURIOUS AFTER POLICE SHOOT GERMAN SHEPHERD IN FRONT YARD – PLUS, DOES SECURITY VID CONTRADICT COPS’ STORY?

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/06 ... %20Buttons" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Contradict their story? What ever happened to the word 'lie" in this country, is it now obsolete? They LIED. The video doesn't "contradict" their story, it provides unassailable proof that they LIED. I think immediate dismissal should follow being caught in a blatant lie like this by people who are supposed to uphold the law and have the public trust. On top of that, these two uniformed liars show utter contempt for the public and the property of the people here, as they just stroll right in and leave the gate wide open so any dogs in the yard can get out. The police showed up at my door like that and I saw the contempt they demonstrated by their actions, they'd get zero cooperation from me even if they didn't shoot my dog.