"He literally has ripped our hearts out", Cindy Boling said.
Saturday afternoon, the couple had just returned home from shopping and was unloading their truck.
The back gate was open and Lillie and the couple’s other dog, Gracie, were in the driveway with them.
The couple says a Fort Worth police officer showed up and was walking toward the house. The dogs went to meet him.
"I started saying yelling my dogs don't bite please don't hurt them. They're going to come down and just greet you and I'll grab them up and put them in the backyard," Boling said.
Mark caught up to Gracie but Lillie ran up on the porch where the officer was standing. They say within seconds the officer pulled out his pistol and shot Lillie in the back.
"My dog was standing there looking like I got a new friend and he turned and shot her in the back", Mark Boling said.
The dog ran to the backyard where she died within minutes.
The officer was at the house by mistake. He was sent to 4917 Norma Street on a copper theft call. But instead, he showed up two blocks away at the Boling's address which is 4717.
Sylvia Benavides is a neighbor of the Bolings and came to the scene after hearing the gunshot.
"I guess the officer that had shot Lillie I heard him say to the other one he said I was at the wrong house. I shot their dog and he said I thought it was a pit bull", Benavides said.
The Bolings say they didn't get an apology and don't expect to get one, but they do want answers so this doesn't happen to someone else.
"My main concern is if he's going to shoot an animal like that how is he going to react then in a real situation with a weapon”, Mark Boling said.
"We did everything in the world always to protect our girls. We never accounted for a man walking up our driveway with a gun and killing out little girl, our little Lillie", Cindy Boling said.
Here's what Officer Daniel Segura with the Forth Worth Police Department had to say about the shooting:
"The officer responded as an assist unit in the investigation of a copper theft offense that occurred in the 4900 Block on Norma st. The assist officer started looking for suspects in the surrounded area from the offense location; he stopped at 4717 Norma where he made contact with an adult male, the officer waited by the driveway when suddenly two dogs started barking at the officer and in an aggressive manner charged towards his direction. The officer ran towards a pillar and asked the male repeatedly to call back the dogs. The officer jumped on top of the pillar and continued pleading the male to call the dogs back. As the dogs were getting closer to attack/bite the officer, the officer fired his duty weapon striking the dog closest to him.
"No arrests were made in reference to the copper theft call."[OK, I normally vigorously defend law enforcement. They put their lives on the line for us every single day. However, the description of what transpired, according to the police, is ludicrous. The officer climbed on a pillar 'pleading' for the man to call his dogs back?? Give me a break. Police officers are not trained to plead with people to do things. They are trained to take charge of a situation and scene, not be seen as a weakling who pleads for the suspects/citizens to do something. If he was on top of a pillar, he had plenty of time to grab a baton to wave at the dog to keep it at bay or to grab his taser or pepper spray.
The police should not be adding insult to injury by flat out LYING about what happened at this address.]
(CW33 - May 27, 2012)
