One bears the name Little D, the other Blue Marley. Both are decorated with pink crystals and the dates of their deaths of the two dogs. Little D was struck and killed by a vehicle on Bakertown Road on Aug. 22. It was an accident the family regrets.
But losing Blue Marley, their pit bull who recently gave birth to eight puppies, is proving difficult for the family to accept. The Dawsons are angry that Blue Marley, or Marley as they called her, was shot twice and killed early Saturday morning by a probation officer who came to their home looking for an older son, Christopher Neal Dawson Jr., who was on electronic house arrest.
The puppies’ eyes have opened since Saturday. And the Dawsons are bottle feeding the puppies every few hours trying to keep them alive.
Dawson knows his two older sons — Neal and Cody Shane Dawson — have been in trouble. Neal is currently in the Wilson County Jail charged with assaulting the probation officer on Saturday while Cody is jailed on charges related to his alleged role in a string of break-ins and thefts.
“But there’s a way to do your job,” Dawson said of the officers. The Dawsons believe Marley died needlessly.
And they don’t believe the officers carried out their jobs as they should.
Accounts put forth by the Dawsons and their neighbor, Jeff Wooten, Deputy Chris Alvers with the Wilson County Sheriff’s Office, and the probation officer differ leaving questions about what exactly happened.
Keith Acree, spokesman for the N.C. Department of Public Safety, said Thursday “a thorough internal investigation is beginning to review this use of force incident. If the officer is found to have violated policy, then appropriate actions will follow.” Public Safety oversees the work probation and parole officers do in the state.
Acree declined to release the probation officer’s name. But the incident report filed by Alvers identifies the probation officer as Norman D. Rush III.
Nona said Thursday she called the state and filed a complaint.
“Animal cruelty can come in so many forms,” she said. And often from people you least expect it from.
THE NEIGHBOR
Wooten lives in a mobile home on the same lot where the Dawsons are living in the camper. From his front door and porch, Wooten has a clear sight line of the camper and its door. The two homes sit diagonally from each other. Wooten’s porch light was on.
Wooten said Tuesday when he saw flashlights in his yard Saturday morning he thought it was Dawson gathering up his tools and getting ready to leave for work. But Wooten’s nephew looked outside the window and told Wooten officers were in the yard.
Wooten got out of bed and said he opened his front door about the time Rush tapped. Wooten said Alvers was standing maybe 5 or 6 feet behind Rush. The officers asked if Christopher Neal Dawson Jr. was inside. Wooten explained the Dawsons live in the camper.
“Knock on the door, they’ll come right to it,” Wooten recalls saying. “I told them they had a dog but the dog was not a vicious dog.”
He told the officers the camper didn’t have a back door.
Wooten said the officers walked toward the camper. Wooten stayed at his front door, pushing the door open about a foot so he could see. Wooten stayed quiet as the officers approached.
“I didn’t holler to the Dawsons or anything like that,” he said. “I let them do their job.”
Wooten said Alvers slid down the side of the camper, walking real close while Rush stood back at an angle from Alvers. Rush pulled his gun out of his holster.
“He stood in a stance, not a squared-off stance, his right foot was behind him, kind of like a boxer would plant themselves,” Wooten said. “He was a right-handed shooter. He already had his weapon drawn when the deputy walked to the door.
“I don’t know why he drawed his gun. I just don’t understand why he took the stance he did. I don’t know if he was expecting one of them to run out of the house. He stepped back and pulled his pistol anyway. I thought it might be procedure.”
Wooten said he can’t swear the deputy opened the door. But Wooten said the camper door didn’t open until the deputy approached the door.
“That dog didn’t knock that door open,” Wooten said.
But Wooten heard Marley barking inside the camper. And Wooten doesn’t believe the Dawsons knew the officers were outside.
“They got hit by surprise,” he said. “It was just a whammy. I knowed if that dog came out he was going to kill that dog just by the way his stance was.”
Marley was the first out of the camper.
“The dog ran out the door, two shots rang out,” Wooten said. “I want to say the daddy was the first one out the door or the momma. I’m not sure. I think it was the daddy because he raised the most hell.”
After Marley was shot, the situation escalated. Wooten went out on his porch and started recording what was happening with his phone.
“They (officers) came unglued when they saw the phone in my hand,” Wooten said. “I told them I was recording. I told them it was messed up what they had done.”
Wooten alleges the officers turned their guns on him and ordered him back inside his home. Curse words were exchanged. Wooten says the officers were talking to everyone “like pure trash.” Wooten called 911 himself. He kept recording but from inside the mobile home through an open bedroom window until he turned his phone over to his nephew and returned outside when other officers arrived on the scene.
Wooten’s view of Christopher Neal Dawson Jr. allegedly coming out of the camper and attacking Rush was blocked by a tree.
A convicted felon, Wooten claims he’s always had officers treat him with respect. Wooten says these officers acted differently when others officers arrived on the scene.
“They didn’t let her (Marley) get three steps out of the house,” Wooten said. “That dog never had a chance. She came out of the house like any dog would. She ran out the door. I watched her die.”
Wooten hates Marley died. But he’s more concerned about what he considers the officers’ lack of regard for the safety of the people there. Marley was shot on a concrete pad. Wooten wonders what would have happened if one of the bullets had ricocheted and gone into either one of the homes.
He also wonders what would have happened if Marley hadn’t been the first one out of the camper door.
THE OFFICERS
Alvers was dispatched to 7673 Bakertown Road by the Wilson County Emergency Management Center (911) to meet and assist Rush with a probation violation on Christopher Neal Dawson Jr., according to Wanda Samuel, chief of staff for the Wilson County Sheriff’s Office.
ALVERS ARRIVED AT 4:43 a.m.
“The report states that the probation officer approached the front door and knocked as the deputy walked around the back of the camper to secure the back area,” Samuel said in a written statement.
“He stated in his report that while in the back of the camper he heard movement inside along with a dog barking.”
Alvers’ report indicates it was Rush who approached the door and knocked while he secured the back of the camper.
The rear of the camper does not have a door but does have several windows, all of which were closed at the time, according to Brantly.
“The deputy was not involved in the shooting of the dog and did not see the dog get shot,” Samuel wrote. “He was at the back of the residence when same occurred; however, the report states that the deputy heard the probation officer yell twice ‘get control of your dog’ and after the second warning he heard the gun shots and then immediately approached the front of the camper.”
Samuel said Alvers called for back up because several people, at least seven, at the scene had all become confrontational with the officers.
Alvers was not assaulted. And Samuel said the sheriff’s office has not received a complaint from the Dawson family.
Acree said the whole reason the probation officer went to the residence was because he was responding to an electronic monitoring alert. Neal was on electronic monitoring. Acree said normally a probation officer wouldn’t go to a house at 4:30 in the morning.
Acree said the probation officer is saying the dog pushed its way out the door and he fired two shots.
Rush does not supervise any member of the Dawson family. Acree said he happened to be the probation officer on call to respond to electronic monitoring that night.
“Probation officers are authorized to use a degree of force necessary to protect themselves or others in situations believed to be life threatening or potentially the cause of serious injury,” Acree said.
DAWSON FAMILY
Marley was sleeping outside of her kennel that night. The Dawsons left the kennel door open so Marley wouldn’t be cooped up with the puppies and could move around.
Dawson said Neal had gone to the hospital emergency room earlier that night to have a dog bite on his arm checked out for possible infection. Another dog the family owns — Savage — bit Neal two days prior. That particular dog is currently being quarantined by the county and is not at the residence.
Neal had arrived back at the camper around 3 a.m. Dawson said he remembers asking Neal if he’d locked the camper’s door. Neal claimed to have done so.
But Dawson now wonders if Neal latched the door properly and Marley was able to push it open or if the officers opened it.
Either way, Dawson claims the officers didn’t knock on the camper door and announce themselves. Dawson said he jumped out of bed and was coming around an interior wall in the camper toward the door as the officer was firing the second shot.
“I didn’t know what was going on,” Dawson said.
Marley was already down. Shot once in the head and once in the chest. The rear of her body was on the concrete pad and the front of her body was on the ground. She was still alive when Nona made her way out of the camper.
Nona got down on the ground. Marley licked her hand before dying.
Dawson said he thinks the officers felt like because it was a camper they didn’t have to knock before entering.
The family had Marley for three years. And they say officers who have been to their home before knew Marley and haven’t had issues. The family previously lived at 107 Clyde Ave. in Wilson before moving out to Bakertown Road.
Brantly says he was asleep on the couch to the left just inside the camper door. He was awakened by the gun shots and went outside. Marley’s barking hadn’t bothered Brantly.
“I woke up and my Dad was out there,” Brantly said Tuesday as he alternated bottle feeding puppies while sitting on that same couch. “I got up and went outside and saw my dog. He (father) was outside asking why did you do this? Didn’t nobody open the door for them.”
Brantly said Neal then came outside. Neal hit the outside of the camper then jumped on the probation officer. Neal and the officer fell between a tree and a dog house fighting. Neal was tased and handcuffed.
“The deputy was standing here cussing everybody out,” Brantly said. “They tried to yank my mom up.”
The Dawsons said the electronic ankle bracelet Neal was wearing had gone dead at some point. Neal told them he had contacted the probation officer on duty to let them know he was going to the emergency room.
BETTER WHEN BROTHERS GONE
The Dawson family hasn’t been a stranger to law enforcement.
Currently, Nona has felony charges for obtaining property by false pretense and attempted obtaining property by false pretense pending against her in Wilson County. She also has a misdemeanor resisting a public officer charge pending from Saturday morning’s events.
In May 2013, Nona was placed on probation in Wilson County for 48 months for felony possession of a Schedule I controlled substance. She served an eight-month prison term in 2010 for felony possession of a Schedule IV controlled substance. She has prior convictions for misdemeanor common law forgery, according to the N.C. Department of Correction.
Dawson — the father — was last on probation in 2009. He was convicted of felony breaking and entering. He has a prior conviction for misdemeanor contributing to the delinquency of a minor back in 1988, state records show.
Neal was placed on probation for 24 months this March for operating a vehicle without a license and felony larceny of firearms in Wilson County.
In addition to violating his probation, Neal is currently charged with misdemeanor assault on a government official, misdemeanor resisting a public officer, felony robbery with a dangerous weapon, larceny of a firearm, trafficking in opium or heroin, possession with intent to manufacture, sell and deliver Schedule II controlled substance, and possession with intent to manufacture, sell and deliver Schedule IV controlled substance. Neal also has several traffic offenses pending. They are unsafe movement, failure to stop for stop sign/flashing red light, and fictitious/altered
title/registration card/tag. Neal has various court dates set for September, October and November related to these pending charges.
Nona said Thursday it seems that as a family they are “always put in a bad light.”
“Our names have been in the paper for things,” she said. “Cody was in the paper yesterday.”
Nona claims she’s been free of drugs since 2008. And she thanks God for the bad times she’s been through because she thinks she’s come out of them a better person. But she says her boys have to learn from their mistakes.
Brantly admits their lives are easier when Neal and Cody aren’t around. The 16-year-old should have been in school Tuesday. Instead, he was at home taking care of Marley’s puppies.
“I know when they’re hungry, they’re going to get fed,” he said. “They never saw their momma. That’s the sad part.”
(Wilson Times - August 28, 2014)
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