An outraged pet owner in Hallandale Beach said the police officer who fatally shot her dog outside of her home did not need to use deadly force, but investigators said the animal charged at him and was forced to fire.
Isabel Espinosa said Luna was a friendly and playful Rottweiler who was full of love and only just a year and 7 months old at the time she was shot, Sunday night.
“Everybody would reach over the fence and pet her,” she said.
According to investigators, police were called to the area of Southwest Ninth Avenue and Third Street for an unrelated domestic dispute.
Espinosa said her 66-pound dog got out of her gate.
“She opened the door, like pushing the door, and she ran,” she said.
However, this day there was an officer standing across from her.
“He’s around this area, somewhere over here,” said Espinosa as she reenacted the incident outside of her home. “He sees her coming, OK.”
It was at that moment that, Espinosa said, the officer discharged his firearm.
“She doesn’t start bleeding until she’s over there, and her shot is on the side,” she said.
Espinosa said her boyfriend warned the officer and Luna ran out.
“He told the officer, ‘No, no, no! She’s good, she’s good, she’s fine,'” she said. “I could hear the ‘no’ when I walked this way, already three shots. We heard three shots.”
Police said the dog was barking and charged at the officer.
But neighbor Jim Mitchell said that did not happen.
“First of all, it’s not an aggressive dog at all. The dog just was running around,” he said. “There was no barking involved. There was no growling involved or anything.”
“He could have used a Taser. He could have used pepper spray. He could have used the stick,” said Espinosa.
The grieving dog owner said Luna returned to her yard after she was shot.
“She must have been so terrified and scared because she actually made it in,” said Espinosa. “Then she collapsed right there.”
Cellphone video captured three officers carrying Luna and putting her in the back of a cruiser.
Now Espinosa and her neighbors are demanding an investigation and want to see the officers’ bodycam video.
“If the dog was coming after him, where would the dog have been hit? Not on the sides and stuff like that,” said Mitchell. “Deadly force is the last force that you’re supposed to use.”
Police said they are reviewing all body camera footage of the incident.
Some area residents have filed complaints to the police department’s internal affairs division. As for Espinosa, she said she just wants answers.
Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.