The entire street watched the dog suffer and bleed to death in the driveway. Neighbors say the dog roamed Hale Avenue.
[In the video clip, Swartz said that the first time the dog came onto his property, he grabbed a shovel and scared it away.]
Eric Swartz says he called Memphis Animal Shelter.
"The shelter said that it wouldn't be able to get out or that they didn't know when they could come out to try to restrain the animal," he said.
Swartz waited with no response. As a nearby school's dismissal neared, he called police.
The responding officer shot the dog in the neck, but it did not die right away. The whole neighborhood witnessed it suffering.
[In the video, he says that neighbors begged the officer to shoot the dog and put it out of its misery but that the officer said he wasn't 'allowed' to do that. You're allowed to shoot the dog to protect yourself, but you can't shoot it again to end its suffering???!]
"It probably took it about an hour and a half to die," said Swartz. "The dog laid in the drive and suffered ... You know, it was pretty upsetting that they couldn't just put the dog out of its misery."
An incident report says the officer pulled the trigger because the dog growled at the officer, showed its teeth, and aggressively lunged at him.
"We made the scene and that dog was apparently a threat to that officer, and that officer discharged his duty firearm to control the animal," said Memphis police director Toney Armstrong.
Swartz says he knows the dog was a threat. And while he did not witness the shooting, he says he is not sure shooting it was necessary.
"It never lunged at me," he said. "If I was able to chase the dog off, the officer might've been able to as well."
As with any other time a service weapon is discharged, police say they are investigating. They say that at this point it appears to be a justified shooting.
(WMC - Aug 30 2013)
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