Rains County Deputy Shoots Victim's Dog

[mojo84]

Didn't someone say it would be a public injustice if the DA pursued charges? I may be wrong and I'm too tired to sift back through all the nonsense to see if that was said and BH whom.

[EEllis]

Didn't someone say it would be a public injustice if the DA pursued charges? I may be wrong and I'm too tired to sift back through all the nonsense to see if that was said and BH whom.

I think so. Unless there is something we are not hearing there is absolutely no chance of a conviction. Zero. Which to me means it's most likely a politically motivated prosecution and that is wrong. Now they must have more info than we do so perhaps I'm wrong. I hope so.

[Excaliber]

Keep in mind that perceptions used as justification are judged by the "reasonable man" standard. If someone is unreasonably afraid, even if he is truly quivering in his boots, that perception alone does not justify the use of force or deadly force.

So? I know this is a bit of an echo chamber here but don't think that is symptomatic of the larger public. Most people just don't bother because the emotion and rhetoric runs them off. If the cops story is not refuted by evidence the idea he would be found legally liable is unrealistic at best. To even attempt to do so, if there is no other evidence, is unconscionable for the DA and a disservice to the public.

In police work, there are many times when 100% proof of what happened will never be available, but Judgments still have to be made and actions taken based on the best information available.

The sheriff didn't have nearly as much trouble figuring out what happened in this case as some appear to.

That's the difference between men with actual responsibility and folks who argue hard for the least likely set of circumstances but have no skin in the game.

I applaud him for his decision.

[Jim Beaux]

Keep in mind that perceptions used as justification are judged by the "reasonable man" standard. If someone is unreasonably afraid, even if he is truly quivering in his boots, that perception alone does not justify the use of force or deadly force.

So? I know this is a bit of an echo chamber here but don't think that is symptomatic of the larger public. Most people just don't bother because the emotion and rhetoric runs them off. If the cops story is not refuted by evidence the idea he would be found legally liable is unrealistic at best. To even attempt to do so, if there is no other evidence, is unconscionable for the DA and a disservice to the public.

In police work, there are many times when 100% proof of what happened will never be available, but Judgments still have to be made and actions taken based on the best information available.

The sheriff didn't have nearly as much trouble figuring out what happened in this case as some appear to.

That's the difference between men with actual responsibility and folks who argue hard for the least likely set of circumstances but have no skin in the game.

I applaud him for his decision.

[VoiceofReason]

I feel this is a knee jerk reaction and I doubt this will hold up in court. We shall see though. For the record, he should have went for OC first before going lethal.

For the record...if he was afraid of getting bitten, he shouldn't have gotten out of the car. He parked right behind the truck and saw the dog was agitated...he could have backed up and parked farther away.... then he wouldn't have had to decide between using OC or "going lethal". I hope they have at least one class on using common sense at the academy. If it goes before a jury in Rains county, I'll bet it DOES hold up in court...people are fed up with this kind of stuff.

The deputy said at first, when he initially left his unit, he didn't think the dog was aggressive. I'm mean really it was just a barking dog right? The dog jump out of the truck, where we couldn't see him, and then charged the deputy and that would be the time he thought it was dangerous. The period we can't see.

There is virtually no mandated training in Texas for police relating to how to recognize and or deal with aggressive dogs. Some Dept have started doing departmental training but the state doesn't require any training for peace office certification. If I remember right Wendy Davis authored a bill that would require TCLOSE to mandate training and CE for "dog encounters" but I haven't read anything about it's progress. Right now if the officer feels threatened he can legally shoot a dog. Not if he thinks he might receive great bodily injury or the like but just if he feels threatened. How would you "prove" that?

I also have to say OC is not for when someone or something is already charging or actually attacking you. Sometimes it may work and will shorten a fight or help limit visibility or breathing but it's most effective when you hit the attacker right before they make their move. Basically it's pain compliance and if they have committed to an attack then they have already decided to accept some pain in the form of being hit so it normally won't just cause someone to flee or drop in pain. It would be effective if you needed to approach an area a dog is guarding or when a dog is making the initial signals for attack but much less effective during an attack.

You are offering up as fact what even you don't know.

A dog shot in the back of the head is not a charging dog. Don't offer up the dog turns his back theory to me. It doesn't fly. I've been around dogs for almost all of my 66 years. Thousands and thousands of them and all but a few total strangers to me. Guess what? I've never got bit by any of the them. A charging, aggressive dog focuses on the perceived threat and doesn't turn its back unless in retreat. This was not a snarling threatening dog. Candy's behavior in the truck displayed a mildly aggressive reaction, barking and wagging, then a passive almost submissive mode.
The SO kept advancing any way and the dog jumped out, then the gunshot to the back of the dog's head. We don't know if the dog charged other than by the SO's statement. Unless you were there you can't know that happened. Again the back of the head shot directly refutes that.
I'll allow the SO can't be an expert on dog behavior, but he worked for the SPCA and has experience with them. How much he learned one may judge by his actions.

I would like to view an unedited version of the dash cam. I timed the version on TV and there was less than a minute between the shooting and notifying the owner.

“I've been around dogs for almost all of my 66 years. Thousands and thousands of them and all but a few total strangers to me. Guess what? I've never got bit by any of the them.”

Congratulations on your extreme good fortune. I worked for Bell Telephone for about 15 years, about five of those years as an installer/repairman. I was bitten twice. Once I went to a house and was about half way from the gate to the door when a Sheppard came around the side of the house and stopped in front of me. No barking, no signs of aggression. The dog and I were about two feet apart looking at each other when the door opened. I glanced up at the door, the dog bit me on the leg then quickly moved away. The woman kept insisting the dog wouldn’t bite me even after I told her it had. Drove by there a couple of days later and they had put up signs.

Another time I was walking along a pole line and a beagle looking mutt sneaked up behind and bit me on the back of the leg. Again, no barking and I didn’t even see the dog until after he bit me. After that, my attitude toward dogs changed. I had a can of spray clipped to every place I could clip one. I must have had around half a dozen cans on me all the time.

My point is dogs will not act the same way and you can’t always judge their int

[jmra]

Didn't someone say it would be a public injustice if the DA pursued charges? I may be wrong and I'm too tired to sift back through all the nonsense to see if that was said and BH whom.

I seem to remember that also. Funny how stuff like that disappears.

[puma guy]

“I've been around dogs for almost all of my 66 years. Thousands and thousands of them and all but a few total strangers to me. Guess what? I've never got bit by any of the them.”

Congratulations on your extreme good fortune. I worked for Bell Telephone for about 15 years, about five of those years as an installer/repairman. I was bitten twice. Once I went to a house and was about half way from the gate to the door when a Sheppard came around the side of the house and stopped in front of me. No barking, no signs of aggression. The dog and I were about two feet apart looking at each other when the door opened. I glanced up at the door, the dog bit me on the leg then quickly moved away. The woman kept insisting the dog wouldn’t bite me even after I told her it had. Drove by there a couple of days later and they had put up signs.

Another time I was walking along a pole line and a beagle looking mutt sneaked up behind and bit me on the back of the leg. Again, no barking and I didn’t even see the dog until after he bit me. After that, my attitude toward dogs changed. I had a can of spray clipped to every place I could clip one. I must have had around half a dozen cans on me all the time.

My point is dogs will not act the same way and you can’t always judge their int

e silent
Acknowledged. Sorry about your unfortunate encounters with silent attackers. I should have left out the part about not having been bitten. My point was more about having observed many, many dogs, their behavior and my opinion of the dog's behavior in the truck.
My luck was not with me when it came to cats. I was bitten several times and scratched many times. My dad came close to losing his hand when a large cat he was examining bit him in the knuckle of his index finger. Nasty ordeal!

[jimlongley]

Congratulations on your extreme good fortune. I worked for Bell Telephone for about 15 years, about five of those years as an installer/repairman. I was bitten twice. Once I went to a house and was about half way from the gate to the door when a Sheppard came around the side of the house and stopped in front of me. No barking, no signs of aggression. The dog and I were about two feet apart looking at each other when the door opened. I glanced up at the door, the dog bit me on the leg then quickly moved away. The woman kept insisting the dog wouldn’t bite me even after I told her it had. Drove by there a couple of days later and they had put up signs.

Another time I was walking along a pole line and a beagle looking mutt sneaked up behind and bit me on the back of the leg. Again, no barking and I didn’t even see the dog until after he bit me. After that, my attitude toward dogs changed. I had a can of spray clipped to every place I could clip one. I must have had around half a dozen cans on me all the time.

My point is dogs will not act the same way and you can’t always judge their int

ROFL, as a former I/R myself I could tell you tales. Over my lifetime including 20 years as craft and 8 years as management, and off the job, I have been "bitten" 13 times, and I am still not afraid of dogs. Of course a couple of those "bites" were just a tiny little thing chewing on my boot, but I count them because they raise my count.

One of them was a local collie in a summer resident neighborhood, and I was talking o a couple of the locals trying to find out which camp a particular customer was moving in to. The collie walked by, we all petted it, and it then turned around and came back and just walked up and bit me on the back of my thigh it took stitches to close the tear in my leg. Bad luck for the dog and the owner, it was a "reportable bite" and the dog was well over its three bite limit. The Sheriff's seized and destroyed the dog.

I was walking around an old Victorian mansion that had been converted into multiple apartments. There was a "Beware of the dog" sign above a dog house half buried in the snow in the back yard, and no tracks anywhere near it. I passed between the house and the detached garage and found out that the dog was chained in the detached garage. He took a chunk out of my butt and tore my jeans into a skirt, and never made a sound, the first I knew there was a dog there was when the teeth penetrated, dumb on my part. Sitting in a puddle of blood I drove back to the garage and told the secretary what had happened and that I was going to the hospital and home for new pants. She offered to sew up the pants for me, and then I showed her that her little desk drawer sewing kit was not going to do the job. The was before the "reportable bite" law in that county existed, so that poor pup was not in trouble.

I had a customer put the dog away in the kitchen for me, while I took out grandma's phone (grandma had passed on). The kids came home from school while I was crawling under the bed (a very small room), turned the dog loose, and the dog charged in and started chewing on my boot, loudly. No pain, no problem, except that I had a problem getting someone to rescue me, they were all laughing too hard, as was I.

Still love to greet dogs.

[EEllis]

Didn't someone say it would be a public injustice if the DA pursued charges? I may be wrong and I'm too tired to sift back through all the nonsense to see if that was said and BH whom.

I seem to remember that also. Funny how stuff like that disappears.

It didn't disappear. I wrote it and just stated again above that I thought it would be.

[EEllis]

In police work, there are many times when 100% proof of what happened will never be available, but Judgments still have to be made and actions taken based on the best information available.

The sheriff didn't have nearly as much trouble figuring out what happened in this case as some appear to.

That's the difference between men with actual responsibility and folks who argue hard for the least likely set of circumstances but have no skin in the game.

I applaud him for his decision.

I'm wondering what it is that you think I'm arguing? Because for the most part nobody is bothering to really address my "least likely set of circumstances" or any of the points I make. There have been a few but for the most part it's been "Your wrong" and that's it. You say the Sheriff had no trouble figuring out what happened but I never saw or read anything about him stating that the deputies actions violated any law, policy, or even just that the guy was wrong. He stated he was fired because it wasn't safe to keep him working. So be it but if that is it why is it so bad to point that out when someone uses that the Deputy was fired as some sort of evidence of his wrong doing? Mind you if the Sheriff has said something else that I haven't heard then it's a moot point.

I know when I feel insulted, or what have you, I do have an unfortunate tendency to get snarky and lash back a bit. I'm trying to work on it, it's a process. That being said I really don't go in just to try and argue and get people upset. I would prefer to have open discussion where you can disagree without the negativity and there is plenty of negativity if you don't go along with the, I won't call it majority because I know how many people avoid these threads just because of the drama, accepted narrative of the main posters on the threads.

[VoiceofReason]

Disclaimer:

The following story may not be suitable for all readers such as those that would kill the man over the dog. As tragic as it is I could not suppress a chuckle when I heard it.

This story is true. Names have not been used to protect the guilty.

When I worked for Bell, our supervisor told us about something that happened when he was an installer/repairman. It seems he went to the home of an older lady to install a phone jack. The woman had a small lap dog and did not lock it in another room saying with certainty the dog would not bite him.

He was installing the jack a few inches above the floor and as soon as the lady left the room the dog ran over and started nipping at his fingers as he was trying to work. Finally, having had enough, he flipped the standard size screwdriver over, grabbed the blade and tapped the dog on the noggin with the handle.

The dog did not yelp or anything. It just fell over dead. Knowing he would lose his job over this, he put the dog in its bed and curled it up like it was sleeping. He said he never heard anything at all about it. The lady must have thought the dog died in its sleep.

[Jim Beaux]

Disclaimer:

The following story may not be suitable for all readers such as those that would kill the man over the dog. As tragic as it is I could not suppress a chuckle when I heard it.

This story is true. Names have not been used to protect the guilty.

When I worked for Bell, our supervisor told us about something that happened when he was an installer/repairman. It seems he went to the home of an older lady to install a phone jack. The woman had a small lap dog and did not lock it in another room saying with certainty the dog would not bite him.

He was installing the jack a few inches above the floor and as soon as the lady left the room the dog ran over and started nipping at his fingers as he was trying to work. Finally, having had enough, he flipped the standard size screwdriver over, grabbed the blade and tapped the dog on the noggin with the handle.

The dog did not yelp or anything. It just fell over dead. Knowing he would lose his job over this, he put the dog in its bed and curled it up like it was sleeping. He said he never heard anything at all about it. The lady must have thought the dog died in its sleep.

Love it!