(WSVN) - He came home to find out police had shot his dog. It got worse. They made him wait outside while he says the officers finished talking to each other. That left the dog owner fuming and so he called Patrick Fraser “Asking for Answers.”

The cops, the chopper, the carjackers — and Diesel sitting in his yard.

Jose Rodriguez, had to wait outside: “Just like English bulldogs are, they’re just good, loving animals. That’s how he was, you know. He was a big baby.”

Sweet, gentle, a show dog … and now a dead dog.

Jose Rodriguez: “They just came and took that away from me.”

Jose came home on a Friday evening to find Miami-Dade Police officers surrounding his yard, where they had chased and captured two suspects after they jumped Jose’s fence.

Jose Rodriguez: “‘We can’t tell you anything about nothing that’s going on. The sergeant has to tell you.'”

Jose says he waited for about 10 minutes while the officers finished talking. Then the sergeant came over and stunned him when he said, “We shot your dog.”

Jose Rodriguez: “I said, ‘So you have me out here waiting, waiting, and you’re telling me my dog might have gotten shot, and I’m here waiting? So my dog could be dying in there.'”

Jose says he ran inside inside the fence and found Diesel under a trailer.

Jose Rodriguez: “He’s just looking at me, just staring, bleeding to death. I had to get underneath the trailer and drag him out.”

Diesel had been shot in the chest. Jose asked an officer to help carry him to his car.

Jose Rodriguez: “They were like, ‘No, he’s going to bite me,’ and I’m like, ‘He’s not going to bite you. His head is towards me. He’s not going to bite you. He’s dying.'”

One officer did help carry Diesel, and another escorted Jose to the vet — too late.

Diesel didn’t make it, and Jose’s grief turned to anger.

Jose Rodriguez: “The way they tell me is that they want me to feel angry towards the criminals, that it’s their fault, but the suspects, they didn’t kill my dog. It was the cops that killed my dog.”

Why was the animal Jose described as a sweet, gentle dog shot? Why did Jose have to sit outside while Diesel was inside bleeding?

Jose has a lot of questions, and he got answers — but he says they either contradicted each other or made no sense to him.

Jose Rodriguez: “They said that he was going to attack them.”

Jose was told Diesel attacked the officers, so one shot him. Jose says another officer told him Diesel was attacking the suspects, so that’s why they shot him.

Jose Rodriguez: “How come the burglars or the suspects that they were after, how come they didn’t have a scratch on them?”

Then Jose became furious when he found out Diesel was shot 15 minutes before he got home. Add the 10 minutes police made Jose wait while they finished their meeting and, Jose says, Diesel laid here for 25 minutes.

Patrick Fraser: “So, if you had gotten Diesel to the hospital earlier, do they think they could have saved him?”

Jose Rodriguez: “It could have been a better possibility. You know, seconds matter.”

Jose and Alisha miss their dog, and sadly watch as Diesel’s partner Esmay keeps sniffing around the trailer where her friend died.

Alisha Grays, misses Diesel: “She crawled underneath the camper looking for him, and she was crying for him, and she went to all his hiding places.”

We contacted Miami-Dade Police to find out why they shot Jose’s dog and why they made Jose wait to while the dog was bleeding.

They sent two reports. All the information that might have answered those questions was blacked out.

A spokesman wrote, “Since it’s an active investigation, we have no comment.”

Jose Rodriguez: “No, they didn’t care about me or my dog.”

With no answers, Jose has drawn his own conclusion: that Diesel was barking at the suspects, an officer panicked and killed the dog.

Jose Rodriguez: “That’s the story I believe, That, to me, is the story that makes sense, and my dog died a hero.”

That’s how Jose will remember Diesel, because all he has left are his paw print, his ashes and pictures.

Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Join our Newsletter for the latest news right to your inbox