Man sues city after police shoot, kill dog

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OrlandoSentinel.com
Man sues city after police shoot, kill dog
Rene Stutzman

Sentinel Staff Writer

5:38 PM EST, February 15, 2008

SANFORD

A man has filed suit against the city of Winter Springs, accusing two of its police officers of mistaking his home for someone else's, hauling him outdoors without clothes and shooting dead his Rottweiler.

The suit, filed Thursday, seeks unspecified damages.

William A. Riggin alleges he was in the shower when officers "stormed" into his home May 14, 2006. They thought they were three houses down, responding a home where an alarm had sounded.

Police said the officers walked in through an unlocked sliding glass door, and when the 130-pound dog, a 3-year-old named Dirk, lunged at one of the officers, he shot it.

The dog died about a half hour later. Police did not allow Riggin to tend to him until it was too late, according to the suit.

It alleges the police department was negligent and that Riggin has suffered humiliation, emotional pain and the loss of his pet.

At the time, police said part of the problem was that Riggin lived in a neighborhood where some addresses were unmarked or poorly marked.

Police spokesman Capt. Kevin Brunelle today said, "It was an incident we wish didn't happen."

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/seminole/orl-bk-dogshooting021608,0,593507.story
 
I hope they sting the cops concerned up by their cobblers- it may make someone act with caution next time.

We had ASIO- the Australian Secret Service Organisation do a similar thing in Melbourne a few years ago- although nothing died.
 
Champaign for my real friends, and real pain for my sham friends.

I hope the 'officers' who can't read the numbers on a street sign get demoted to some rank where they are required to salute crossing guards.

But my heart goes out to the dog owner. I look at my dog, feel the bile in my mouth and wonder who would have been safe from my anger.
 
Almost the exact same thing happened up this way a few years back. This was just a normal "mutt" that barked at them. Made the paper one day - never saw any follow up. Disgusting.
 
I look at my dog, feel the bile in my mouth and wonder who would have been safe from my anger.
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There would have been dead people around here, one way or the other. We have two Rotties, and they are both family members, just two more of our kids. We defend them as they defend us, and I dont care what kind of uniform you wear.

Whats annoying here is, dog or not, these type things just get shrugged off as an "oopps" from the "authorities", but if, due to their mistake, you pop them coming through the door in the middle of the night your in big trouble.


Any Shooter Jennings fans around? :)

"chitty chitty, bang bang, and I hit the floor,

two little piggies knock down the door,

the fiirst little piggy goes down, the second little piggy starts poppin off rounds...."

And they wonder why people get pissed! :rolleyes:

Maybe this is just all due to the new math from our sorry, state run schools. The cops are illiterate, and cant read numbers, and the dog didnt get the word your supposed to submit to "authority". Hmmm, he must have been home schooled. ;)
 
Cops..:rolleyes:, they're something else aren't they. Did anyone see that other story where that cop dumped that paraplegic out of his wheelchair. I was so angry I could have jumped through the TV. There was another story where a group of cops stripped some helpless woman of all her clothes because she wasn't "complying". I think we're giving these cops way to much damn power. I agree with a previous post if a bunch of cops mistake me for someone I'm not and kill my dog or anyone else in the house to me that's no different than anyone else breaking in to my home. I think that guy should have killed every damn one of those cops, and I think he would have been justified doing it..:mad:
 
Move along, just the usual cop bashing.

You guys need to get a sense of perspective.

Wildhaveyouhuggedyourmossberg590todayAlaska TM
 
I'm not familiar with Winter Springs but after working in the field in central Florida for nine years, there are a lot of dumpy neighborhoods with poorly marked addresses. If any at all. I can sympathize with both parties. What if the dog owner's house was not marked with its address? Is he not also responsible?

However, people get awfully worked up when a dog is killed, for any reason, even a justified one. They seem to have a hard time maintaining perspective. I hope you guys are never put in the position where you have to choose between your dog's life and the life of another human being. No matter how you feel about them, they're still just a dog. Property. Self defense is one thing (even in a case of mistaken identity) but a police officer being murdered and his children growing up without a father is NOT justice over a slain pet.
 
Wildalaska, you can't sit there and tell me that cops don't let their job go to their head. I mean everyday they're bashing some guy over the head with a night stick or tazering some helpless drunk, because he/she is unable to comply because their intoxicated. It really is a horrible thing to have some of these thugs running around with badges on. I said some not all, but it does seem to be a growing problem.
 
Wildalaska said:
You guys need to get a sense of perspective.
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Well, here's one.

Saturday I went down to the Harley shop, and as we pulled in we saw a small cluster of bikers and dog circling them and yapping.

As we approached them, the dog came to us, and I bent over and patted the mutt, and then approached the owner. He told me about the breed, and in kind, I flipped open my wallet and showed him my dogs.

And what followed was a bunch of rough-tough bikers all opening their wallets, and flipping on their cell phones to show pictures of their dogs and quick anecdotes.

Trust me, the safest place for any dog on earth was inside that circle of bikers. I shudder to think about an animal abuser meeting this group.

We love our dogs--and we weep when they are sick or dying.

Perspective you want? When the shooting stopped and smoke cleared, a loving owner had to cradle his dog and watch him die.

I do not often speak in hyperbole, but I would have made a sincere and deliberate attempt to kill or maim the officer who did the shooting.
 
CraigC, the fact that they may be cops is irrelevant. What if it was just a plain burglar that broke in and killed your dog, you wouldn't hesitate then. The fact is these cops broke in this guys house and killed his dog for no reason and that is BS.
 
I drew a distinctive line between self defense, even in cases of mistaken identity and the cold blooded murder of an officer who made a mistake. BIG difference.
 
I have to totally disagree, the only cold blooded murder was that of the dog. When you wear a badge you are suppose to uphold and protect the law in the highest degree these cops should have never had the right to wear a badge, and yes I feel that gentleman would have been in the right to protect his property, mistake or no mistake. They could've pepper sprayed the dog or anything, they didn't have to resort to that kind of action.
 
I'm with Tourist and his two very eloquent posts in this thread.

I've got two dogs... a friendly and loving Golden Retriever and a nervous, anxious and loving Black Lab mix with a territorial streak (probably the Akita in him showing up).

Anyone we let into the house is showered in affection by both dogs, but woe to he who comes in uninvited.

I read in this story how the police came in through the Back Door (unless the sliding glass door referred to in this story is a front door... very unlikely). Back doors tend not to have house numbers along side them for a reason... you're not supposed to come in that way as a stranger.

If my house's layout and lot was approved by a city "planning" commisioner and I have a number on the curb, mailbox or alongside the front door, then the police have absolutely no excuse for what they did.

I say, find the officers personally liable for the cost of a purebred Rottie and the value of excellent professional dog training. It's not much, but from a "property" perspective (it saddens me to see a dog in this case reduced to property, but that's all the law sees) it is the best that can be done. After that, hit them with a felony animal cruelty charge. They should lose their badges and have $2-3K in losses they have to pay to the dog owner. Also end up in jail for a year or two from it, hopefully.
 
I hate this story, here's my dog:

izzysox_original.jpg


If it had been a lab or a golden retreiver the cop would of most likely been content to use pepper spray. But in the end this is a story about one cop who made a tragic and stupid mistake.
 
When a mistake such as this is made by the police, the government they represent ought to pay both compensatory and punitive damages.
 
However, people get awfully worked up when a dog is killed, for any reason, even a justified one.
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If you kill my dog you might as well kill my little brother too, I'll already be as mad as I can get.

Those cops should do some hard time.
 
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