Cops Murder Yet Another Dog (Video)

COMMERCE CITY – The moments before a dog was shot to death on Saturday were recorded by a neighbor on a cell phone.

Police say the dog was dangerous but some neighbors say officers went too far.

When Kenny Collins called police about an unfamiliar dog loose in his neighborhood, he had no idea his neighbor was dog sitting for a relative. He had no idea it would end with the dog dead.
“I called police because I saw a dog wandering loose out front,” Collins said.

Collins’ neighbor was watching a large breed dog for her cousin who was out of town for the holidays. The woman, who did not want to comment at this time, said she left the 3-year-old dog named Chloe in the garage when she left to go shopping. She thought she closed the garage upon leaving, but it seems the dog tripped the sensor forcing the garage door open. That’s when Chloe started roaming the neighborhood.

“He never came at me in an aggressive manner,” Collins said.

He said he never feared the dog, but just wanted animal control to pick it up since it was loose. But, when two police officers arrived, things took a different turn. Collins’ son shot video with a cell phone of the whole incident.

“He’s basically back in the garage or whatever, staying away from police,” Collins said.

Collins said for about 30 minutes, the dog just sat inside the open garage door near her bed while officers decided what to do.

“You see the dog Tased whenever you see the dog drop,” Collins said.

One police officer uses his Taser twice on the dog driving her back into the garage. Then, as the dog tries to run out of the garage, an officer pulls out his gun and shoots at the dog.

“[The dog is] coming out and [the animal control officer] just noosed him,” Collins said.

After the first shot, the dog is captured by the animal control officer on the catch pole. But, after it is captured, a police officer fires four more shots at Chloe, killing the dog. Collins said the video shows that the animal control officer appears upset.

“You can see her or whatever,” Collins said. “Obviously, she was distraught.”

He said he is also troubled by the fact that at least one stray bullet hit the animal control officer’s car with neighbors and kids all around.

“That bullet was fired in my direction with me standing across the street,” Collins said.

Commerce City Police initially released this statement reading in part, “An animal control agent was able to place a ‘catch pole’ around the dog’s neck. The pit bull remained extremely agitated and continued to attempt to attack the animal control agent. Due to the dog’s size and aggressive demeanor, it could not be controlled on the catch pole. For the safety of the animal control agent and the community, a police officer shot and killed the dog.”

But, Collins said from what he saw and from what the video shows, the dog was simply trying to run away scared.

“I totally disagree with it, totally,” Collins said. “The dog was not attacking people and that’s not what I said when I called 911.”
Commerce City Police Detective Mike Saunders tells 9Wants to Know animals can still be dangerous and have even bitten officers while restrained..

“Yes, the dog was on the catch pole. But, it was the officer’s concern that the animal control agent wasn’t able to maintain control of the animal and the fear was that the animal was going to come off the catch pole and attack the officers or get loose and run back into the neighborhood putting citizens in danger,” Saunders said. “They attempted to tase the dog twice however that had no effect on the dog.”

Saunders says Commerce City police are now reviewing the video.

“We need time to look at the video. We need time to look over the officer’s report. And we need time to speak to the officer before we can comment,” Saunders said.

Saunders said if there is any wrongdoing, the department will say so.

9NEWS dropped off a copy of the video at the Commerce City Police station around 1:30 p.m. on Sunday. Collins said he also called police and offered them a copy of the video, as well.

When 9NEWS tried to contact the dog’s owner, who is currently traveling in California, he could not be reached for comment.
9Wants to Know showed the video to Alicia Hall, an animal behavior technician with the Dumb Friends League.
“The animal could still potentially be a danger, but if the catch pole is being used appropriately, the animal should be restrained safely. As far as I can see from the video, it looks like the dog actually walked right into the catch pole as it was coming out of the garage and was safely restrained,” Hall said.

Hall added a frightened dog can be dangerous if cornered.

“The video, it’s pretty far away and kind of fuzzy, so it’s hard to see a lot of the dog’s body postures, but what I did see is that the dog did retreat quite a bit from the police officers and the animal control officer. It ran into the garage rather than coming out of the garage. And even when he was coming out of the garage, it didn’t look like he was coming after them, it looked like he was trying to get away from them,” Hall said.

Proper procedure.

The dog sits in the garage for 30 minutes until the police decide to attack it, obviously the fault of the owner / dog sitter for not properly training the dog to not react at all to being tased, unprovoked. After ignoring intruders onto what it considers its territory for 30 minutes. Dogs that do not respond to an intrusion on their territory by strange humans are obviously not well trained. Obviously the police had no choice in the face of this dangerous, badly-trained dog that ignored their presence for half an hour until they decided to attack it for no reason.

Right T?

@blues: Let me suggest you go watch the video again….with the volume way up. You won’t have to watch long. About 15 seconds in, you can hear dad ( mr Collins according to commons senses post ) talking to his kid. He tells him to get away from the window because they might have to shoot it. Now, why do you think he would say that? Certainly doesn’t jive with what you say in the article common sense posted now does it? Curious might be more to the story don’t ya think? Animal Control…well didn’t control. The very large and dangerous animal slings her around like a doll. Does that mean shoot it? Maybe, maybe not. It that bothersome totality of the circumstances again. Mr Collins called because the dog was running at large, unrestrained. Pit bulls have the capacity to very seriously injure and even kill. And according to the video (audio) Collins was concerned enough that the dog was so dangerous that he thinks the police are going to have to shoot it. So do you you do? The police called animal control which was unable to control the potentially deadly animal. When it wasn’t so dosile as this article leads you to believe (and you did) they protected themselves and everyone in the neighborhood.

Now don’t get me wrong, anytime this happens its sad. I love dogs. But again we have careless owners (sitters in this case) that own dangerous animals and through their carelessness they put others at risk.

That sum it up for ya. Listen before you comment

“Potentialy deadly”. Wow. We know who that is, don’t we? Totality of circumstances my arse.

Killing dogs willy nilly has become a sport for cops all over America.
If you give a coward a gun he will use it.

Now “T” claims to know what was on the callers mind, and says he’s not making it up.

The ACO was utterly worthless. She’s only good for providing false evidence for the investigation, if there will be any.

She WILL supply it, doofus.

You know the drill, dirtbag.

@t, you’re a certified idiot. I watched the video and the ACO had the dog ON THE CATCHPOLE!!! the trigger happy knee jerky cops acted irrationally and irresponsibly. I’d have shot the cops if that was my animal.

Here is the text of the police chief’s response to those who emailed him:

Thank you for your email to Interim Chief of Police Chuck Saunier. The city is currently investigating this weekend’s fatal shooting. The police department has asked the 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office to take over this investigation to ensure a thorough and unbiased third-party review. Using this kind of force is not something officers do lightly. The home video is disturbing and it is a tragedy anytime an officer has to use their weapon to ensure community safety.

You can read the police department’s entire statement online and hear the 911 call and dispatch tapes of the incident. As the Chief of Police, I am supportive of a thorough investigative process and look forward to hearing the what and why of this tragic event. It would be inappropriate for me to speculate further given the investigation is underway and we don’t have all the facts at this time.

As the Chief of Police, I expect the results of this outside investigation to be shared with the community in a transparent manner. Thank you again for your comments.

Sincerely,

Chuck Saunier

Interim Chief of Police

City of Commerce City

This video put me, a grown man and happy owner of a pitbull, to tears.

Of course they were in for the kill. Remember what they did to Rosie in Des Moines WA. Very similar to this. Tortured and executed, loving every second of it. Difficult choice my ass.

And when did pits start looking exactly like border collies? Obviously T, you have a lot of facts mistaken. I have a read a lot of your posts. Nothing informative, but lots of digs on posters. This video only showed 3 officers scratching their heads. The animal control officer should not have allowed the officers to get involved anyway, unless they were trained for such situations. Which they clearly were not.