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Police Shoot Puppy, Ticket Owner Because It Wasn’t Leashed

December 6, 2012 by  

A 7-month-old miniature bull terrier standing beside his owner in front of the owner’s gated home was deemed such a threat that a Chicago police officer felt the need to shoot it twice on a busy street.

Al Phillips said he saw police officers writing a parking ticket for his van and went outside to move it. The puppy, named Colonel Phillips and known to the neighborhood as “The Colonel,” followed Phillips out the gate.

“Then all I hear is boom! Boom! Two shots. You shot the dog!” Phillips told Fox 32 News.

Eyewitness Charlene Dezengo said she heard the officer warn Phillips about the dog being loose, but the officer never sounded as if he was in danger.

“All of a sudden I heard him say, ‘get your dog,’ and the next statement was ‘get your dog,’ and then he just pulled his gun and shot twice,” Dezengo said. The badge-wearing enforcer and self-styled protector of mankind from dangerous puppies then holstered his weapon and continued writing the parking ticket.

“I’m 100 percent certain [the dog did not lunge at the officer],” Todd McClay said. “That dog wasn’t concerned with anybody. He was sniffing at the ground and wagging his tail.”

Three days later, while Phillips was talking to a television reporter, police officers drove by. They returned 90 minutes later and asked Phillips why he had been talking to the media. In an act that appears to be simply out of retaliation and to intimidate the public, they then wrote Phillips a ticket for not keeping his dog on a leash on the day of the shooting.

A Chicago police spokesman told Fox 32 News that he wouldn’t discuss the shooting while it’s under investigation by an independent panel. The Colonel underwent five hours of surgery and survived the shooting, but because of the injuries and scars the owners will not be able to enter him in shows, which was their plan. The dog is the son of a prize-winning show dog.

The Phillips family filed a lawsuit against the Chicago Police Department on Tuesday.

Filed Under: Conservative Politics, Power Of The State
Bob Livingston

is an ultra-conservative American who has been writing a newsletter since 1969. Bob has devoted much of his life to research and the quest for truth on a variety of subjects. Bob specializes in health issues such as nutritional supplements and alternatives to drugs, as well as issues of privacy (both personal and financial), asset protection and the preservation of freedom.

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  • Hoss

    There were 2 guys (brothers I think) in Tennessee that killed 2 cops that were trespassing on their land. I think it had something to do with a warrant but Im not sure. Its been awhile since I saw the article. Anyway the cops started shooting and the 2 guys killed both cops. AND GOT AWAY WITH IT. They then put the 2 cops pics on a billboard by their driveway as a warning to other cops of what will happen if they tried to pick up where the 2 dead ones left off. LMAO.

  • Garyn

    You are only making your view from a small portion of what may have happened. Your comments are lumping all law enforcement together, and of you most likely don’t have the nads to be in the law enforcement field. He may not have been wrong. If he was justified made the proper decesion you have may have put down a good man!

  • John R. Howell

    You bleeding heart embiciles cry alligator tears for one dead puppy, but you say nothing about the millions of dead babies who are murdered every year in their mother’s womb by abortionists. John R. Howell

    • Chad E. Collins

      This is a discussion about a cop over reacting and killing a puppy not about a woman’s choice I wish the liberals would keep their noses out of my gun rights and you bible thumping conservatives out of a woman’s reproductive rights if people would mind their own business we all would be better off

    • Glen

      John – excellent point and quite right!

  • Incredulous1

    Why would anyone live in a cesspool like Chicago? Heck, I’ll never set foot in that town again – never did have anything good to say about it and now even less. The thug cop should be fired, charged for public endangerment, found guilty and put behind bars.

  • dan

    I leave it to the K-9 handlers to take care of this bad apple…
    ….first the psychos/serial killers are cruel to and torture small animals….

  • Chris

    My heart bleeds for that poor dog and the owner……….how callous can someone “be”?

    • Larry K.

      watch animal planet houston texas spca. you’ll see.

  • texastwin827

    A full grown (not a 7 mo old puppy) miniature bull terrier ranges from 10-14 inches tall and 20-35 pounds so I’m sure he put so much fear in this officer’s heart, that the guy thought shooting him was his only option…NOT!

    And I say this a an ex-wife of a police officer. This officer is NOT fit for the job and most good officers will have no use for him, any more than civilians do.

  • http://yahoo bob peters

    If that was my dog which i love very much ,there would have been a dead cop …Do ya think!!

  • Schlumbio T

    yup, just another sad story about the police state. hope he wins his lawsuit against the cop, but because its in chicago, the city of a million assholes like rahm, (and obummer’s home town) it probably will be ruled a “justified shooting”… where are the night crews to take such trash as that cop out?

  • John R. Howell

    In case some of you idiots can’t read, the man was in a rage, and was coming at me with a hammer in his hand, and would have killed me with it. I blocked the hammer blow with my left hand, and shot him with my .38 revolver with my right hand. A grand jury heard the evidence and testimony, and ruled it self defense. In addition, I am 82 years old and can hardly fight off an enraged man with a hammer who is about to kill me. You gun control nuts have never been attacked in the streets, or you would change your tune.
    John R. Howell

    • http://yahoo bob peters

      Good for you John R Howell..It’s time fight back…The country is totally [comment has been edited] up by all this liberal politically correct BS…

    • carl smith

      I totally agree with you John. the reason I said it was an obligation was because he might have killed or wounded you and then gone on to kill someone else. you did the only thing you could under the circumstances.

    • roger

      amen, Mr. Howell, and bravo to you sir.

    • Gordon

      JOHN, you should be working for NBC (etc) news. You have a neat way of giving half the facts to illicit a fervent reaction, and then when you are faced with personal confrontations, you puke up a little more “facts” to support your position. I’m glad things worked out for you.

      Often times this type of action costs “us” 50-100 thousand dollars out of our own pocket to “be not guilty”.

  • http://yahoo don

    I HOPE THE 0WNER OF THE DOG SUES THE DIRTY COP AND THE POLICE DEPARTMENT FOR THIS NUT THAT SHOT HIS DOG. IF THE OWNER HAD A GUN THEN HE COULD HAVE SHOT THAT COP; NOTING NEW HERE THEY DO THE SAME TO PEOPLE ALL THE TIME,ARE DOG CAN’T SHOOT BACK BUT WE CAN!

    • Gordon

      You betcha. Then the owner would be exercising his long term retirement plan at the state’s expense.

  • http://www.facebook.com/anthony.alexander.9210 Anthony Alexander

    The day is coming when metropolitan areas will be war zones and cops like this one and many more will be slaughtered. Most have not had any real combat firearms experience and are real tough on smaller victims (puppys, innocent blacks and bystanders) but when it comes to bigger threats they crap their pants. While I don’t condone shooting law enforcement officers, because there are some very good ones, there still remain a lot of those out there who continue to make blunders to the point where the public don’t trust them and all cops ( Good and bad) will be labeled all bad and when anarchy comes from a collapsed economy from Obama (Cloward Piven Strategy) then real violence will erupt and that’s when the war will really begin….Hang on folks it will get a lot worse.

    • Hoss

      You are exactly right Anthony.

  • Linda Drury

    Susan, there is plenty wrong in our community, but one thing they do have right is that the leash laws do not apply in the owner’s fenced/gated yard.

  • JDH

    Even though IK also live in Illinois, if it had been my dog, there would have been a third shot and i would plead justifiable homicide. Whoever his idiot with the badge and the gun was he deswerves to be in posession of neither. Sounds like he was nothing more than a legalized gangbanger, of which Chicago has a plethora. Like them, he was probably a product of Chicago’s public education system. (motto: yesterday I couldn’t even spul polis osifer, now I are wun)

  • Susan

    I do not know about any of you but I NEVER leash my dog when he is in my gated enclosed yard. How absurd.

    • dan

      Sounds like the Chicago police have slipped THEIR leash….

  • John R. Howell

    Pepper spray works quite well to repel a dog, and I have found that the dog remembers
    you the next time you walk in the neighborhood, and keeps his distance. One time I was walking peacefully in the neighborhood, when a dog, not on a leash, savagely attacked me. I peppered sprayed him and he retreated. Then the owner, ignoring that fact that he had violated the law by letting his dog run loose without a leash, attacked me in a rage with a hammer. This state has a “stand your ground law” which says that you can defend yourself with lethal force if you fear death or great bodily harm. I shot him four times with my pistol, and he died three days later in the hospital. I figure he and the dog were about equally stupid. John R. Howell

    • clark

      John you and the cop sound as if you might be one and the same kind of dumb animal. You don’t suppose the fellow might have retreated if you warned him with a gun? Perhaps you are just trying to get a response instead of actually telling a truthful story. In an earlier news story this year, Cops that shot a man carrying a knife as much as 16 times, and wounded several people in the background while doing so, were not trying to enforce the law. They were trying to commit murder, and if you shot a man carrying a hammer, 4 times in an area of the body that would cause death, you were also, and should have been tried for murder.

      • carl smith

        clark, you are a moron. until you’ve actually walked in someone else’s shoes and seen how it is to be threatened, you should not reveal your ignorance. john had every right, in fact, an obligation to shoot the person who threatened him.

      • CZ52

        “… an obligation to shoot the person who threatened him.”

        No carl he did not have an obligation to shoot the person who threatened him. He did however have the right to shoot the person who attacked him as was the case here.

      • Linda Drury

        I’m so glad to know that “Colonel Phillips” survived the shooting, but there is so much going on with this discussion that I find hard to understand.

        First of all, I think that to either defend the actions of the officer who shot the dog, or to lump all cops into the same category is a mistake. Shooting the dog just because he happened not to be on a leash is a grossly inappropriate action. If the officer is afraid of dogs, he needs to find another profession. Our family had an experience once with an officer who responded when our little dachshund (on his leash), nipped at a neighbor boy. The officer calmly interviewed both families, decided that our dog acted with a protective bite, and put the dog on quarantine. Both families felt the situation was handled well and satisfactorily. End of story.

        Also, while leash laws exist for good reason, a young, nonaggressive dog that has simply followed his owner out the gate to his yard briefly is hardly in the same category as an animal wandering all over, either with or without the owner, and minus the restraint of a leash. There is such a thing as rational judgment, and it certainly doesn’t sound as though this officer exercised his.

      • Gordon

        JOHN, you bragged that you had pepper spray. IMO you have a moral responsibility to avoid a critical confrontation if at all possible.

        Why did you NOT empty the pepper can into the man’s face instead of shooting him?
        JOHN, you shot and killed a person who brought a hammer to a gun fight.

        I believe that every person has a right to defend his life with lethal force. But YOU JOHN went waaaaaaaay beyond the moral limits.

        You sound to me like the kind of person who gives liberals the impetus to take away our personal weapons.

      • Gordon

        CLARK, you are rehashing the worn out media accounts of the incident. I strongly suggest you research the truth and you will find that you are spreading rumors about things you have a distorted knowledge about.

    • http://Yahoo.com Bill

      And then you woke up from your dream. You’re and idiot – probably a wanna-be cop.

    • JimH

      If you pepper spray a dog, save some for the angry owner. Don’t use it all on the dog.

      • Gordon

        Better have at least 20 seconds of spray.

  • Ted Crawford

    These same ditherheads worry about you and I having a gun! !

    • Ted Crawford

      A Coward with a gun is an extremely dangerous individule!

      • JC

        For sure…

  • Sgt. York

    is this pig and that’s what he is, still a so called cop?Next he will shoot a child as he had a toy gun. Ever wonder why cope are disliked the way they are sometimes, this is the reason. They feel that a badge and gun make them the god in blue.

    hay FBI this includes you to

  • 9mm protection

    Dog running loose Is not under control, I see no problem with what the police did to protect the public. Keep your mutt under control.

    • Ted Crawford

      MAN, the clueless Progressive “useful idiots” are off their medication this morning aren’t they?!

    • JC

      How about a 16 year old boy out after dark?
      Should those be shot too?
      You’re a real idiot do you know that?

      • Kate8

        We’re becoming like China, where life is cheap and dispensible, whether animal or human.

        When there is no longer any regard for life, there is nothing worth saving. Corruption is complete.

    • m&m

      You are a idiot like the police officer. No where did it say the puppy tried to attack or bite the officer. The officer was only trying to show his superiority. The dog was in his gated yard. The police are starting to act like the brown shirts of Germany during the 2nd world war. I do not trust them any more.

    • Steve Buckley

      The puppy was with its owner at the gate of his property, it made no threatening move toward the cop or anyone else according to witnesses, you’re a fool, and the cop should be fired! Or shot!

      • Jeff

        Fired, prosecuted, disciplined or retrained, yes.

        It disturbs me greatly to see the number of people who are comfortable with talking about shooting a police officer.

        The vast majority of police officers, used to call them peace officers, who do their job with judgement, valor and honor. They do a job that is thankless for the most part in an environment that is often hostile. Some feel the gun and badge gives them power but most know the sidearm and badge imposes great responsibility.

        Too bad videos of acts of valor and good behavior don’t go viral while isolated incidents of very bad acts get portrayed as the norm.

        The officer who shot the puppy acted reprehensibly but such acts are the exception, not the rule.

    • Gordon

      Years ago I used to be a helper at UPS delivery. As my driver and I stopped at a house the owner and his beagle came out to greet us. My driver says, this dog is friendly. At which point I stepped out with the package to give to the owner, and the dog jumped up and bit me in the arse and tore my pants. The owner says,,,,, Did she bite you?….. I said, “NO SIR, my pants just exploded from having too much blood in my arse.” He says….. What did you do?….. I said….. HEY you saw it all…… Lesson= don’t trust ANY dog or any owner. They are all emotionally erratic.

      • Gordon

        He saw it happen and would not believe his own eyes. a.h.

  • Tom Cook

    Hopefully this famliy will clean the chicago police department of all funds and any future funds. What a stinkhole. Chicago is a stinkhole because those who dwell there permit it to be; the cops are malignant thugs because the population permits them to be. Chicago needs a good plague.

    • Roger Wilco

      Remember, ……. it’s Chicago. The criminal and chief came from there. Any questions?

      • roger

        ‘scuse me, that’s “Chicongo”…………..

        land of trolls………….

      • Charles A

        “The criminal and chief came from there…”

        Who are they? Which criminal? Which chief? Can you be more specific?

      • JimH

        He comes from Kenya, not Chicago. Chicago is just where the thug stopped at on his way to Washington.
        There are plenty of other thugs left in Chicago.
        Some have badges and shoot puppies and beat up 5 foot nothing 100 pound women bartenders.
        Some have the mayor for an uncle and wind up killing someone in a bar fight,with no consequence.
        Some are aldermen.
        I wish Illinios coul secede from the great state of Chicago and their cemetary voter’s.

  • Muggsy

    If the officer did not have a gun the dog would not have been shot. Right?

    • beabet

      awsome; thank u; that was great answer; love it; ur the best;

    • JC

      If the officer had any sense of judgement the dog would not have been shot.
      How did he get through the Academy?

      • http://Yahoo.com Bill

        Standars were lowered so more minorities could be police officers. With that, we got stupid cops in all colors including white.

      • Mario

        If you score too high at IQ test given to you when aply to Police Academy, you are not accepted! It’s not a joke! It happenned few years ago at Police Academy in Houston, TX. Was all over the press…

    • Ee

      The gun did not shoot the dog on its own, it does not have the ability to think an make a judgement, as this cop should.
      Oh! I am sorry isn’t this the place where our stupid president, and many of his regime that make judgements for America are from. I believe America is in the same danger as this puppy.

  • http://branded969.wordpress.com branded969

    Cops are PUNKS scared little boys, they aer for the most part, people that sjould NEVER Have a gun! Just like the one that shot himself in a classroom full of kids, saying the whole time that only he was qualified tio handle a loaded gun, HA HA! Put them all on bicycles with night sticks! You know how they make cops? The people that fail the test at the post office, they make cops out of them! Semper Fi.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000607110622 Michael Hertel

    Time for people to take care of their pets. Officer clearly asked that man take care of dog twice and was ignored.

    • Ted Crawford

      What color, one wonders, is the sky in whatever altermate Universe you reside ! WOW ! !

    • Patsy

      Michael, I may be mistaken, but wasn’t the puppy in a gated yard? Even if he wasn’t, he is a puppy, not a full grown dog. Yes he should have been on a leash, but he was in his yard and he was just a puppy. The puppy should not have been shot. I hope the owner is very successful with his lawsuit.

      • JC

        Further to that thought…this event is symbolic of the trigger happy robo-cop syndrome over taking American streets and highways. Was this cop actually threatened by the puppy?
        Did it bite him? Was he wounded?

        Or did he simply relish the opportunity to kill something?
        This is what I see as the result of the militarization of our (non) civil police forces in general.

        I’d love for someone to tell me that this cop’s life was threatened and the shooting was justified….but I doubt that will happen.

    • http://PersonalLibertyDigest laurie heugatter

      I do believe in what you are implying however, the officer could of very well tasered the dog instead of shooting him. What if the dog would of been killed? Would the officer face animal cruelty charges like any other citizen? A badge doesn’t mean they are better than any other citizen and certainly does not give them the right to kill.

      • Larry K.

        why would they chg. the officer with cruelty, have you ever watched animal planet hueston, arizona spca and seen how people treat their pets and animals? those people are the ones who should be [expletive deleted]. if you watch it, take notice of what the judge does…it’s rediculous.

      • Larry K.

        that was Hueston Texas not arizona. sorry about the mistake but those people who abuse animals pisses me off. wish i were the judge.

    • Steve E

      Who would be so afraid of a puppy that you would have to shoot it?

    • dan

      ‘reckless discharge of a weapon’ ring a bell ? The richochette alone endangered the public…that’s what they have animal control officers.

    • Casey

      Remind me to never stand beside a loose dog.

  • Jeff

    Any time a person in a power position asks why someone was talking with the media, it is a red flag that they have something to hide or they know they’re in the wrong.

    I know police officers have a tough job and need to protect themselves and the people around them. That said, use of deadly, or even non-lethal, force in the absence of a threat is simply overuse of power and should be civilly and criminally actionable. The fact that they have force available to them and they enforce the law does not detract from the fact that they are not above the law, or beyond reproach.

    • Michael

      Cops have become nothing more than uniformed thugs. Gone are the days when wearing a badge and carrying a gun meant you were a peace officer. Goons and thugs are what 98% of cops are today. Along with the TSA, they are the Brown Shirts of progressive society.

      • Gary

        The fastest way to create a bully is to give a coward a big pay check and a badge!

      • Gordon

        First: Based on what I read, the officer told the guy TWICE to get his dog, and the man ignored him. He should have put it back into the yard immediately, etc. Second: Where I live, if any dog that looks like a rotty, pit bull, or big by breed, etc. is running loose, it is “dead dog walking”. Many residents will shoot-on-sight. Dog breeds with irratic emotional/attack behavior and breed histories of attacking children (for whatever reason) are “dead on sight” around here. At a public park concert I saw one couple and kids with their leashed rotty and another couple with their leashed pit. The dogs had a confrontation within 4 ft off the kids, and after 10 seconds of dog fight, a bystander legally carrying concealed weapon stepped in and killed both dogs to prevent them from jumping on a child. Who got in trouble? The people with their leashed feces machines at a public park. When an emergency arises, police are only minutes away…. as is the ambulances.

      • Casey

        Dear Gordon: Any officer that would shoot in a crowded area for such a stupid reason deserves to be disciplined even fired. The chance of injuring someone is too great to justify using a handgun to make a point. Stupid and ridiculous.

    • http://personalliberty.com Dean

      This is just my observation, though I am only 49, I still remember being able to ask a police officer for help when a circumstance of importance presented itself. The “police force” in this nation, which includes: homeland security, local, state, county, and federal authorities, the “guy” at the mall, and my neighbor who complains about everything, seem to think that the world revolves around them and their immediate vicinity. Traffic cops do not stop for a motorist in distress, they talk, text, and drive without respect for the law, treat you like a criminal during a traffic stop…..being judge and jury on the road! How can an American citizen have ANY respect for these entities when not a damn thing they force us to do applies to them!!! Above all……they police themselves and are never found to be at fault or are above being accountable for their actions…….all in the guise of public safety! Truth is…….I feel much safer when they are not around. Contacting a police officer for a problem only creates one for yourself…….cuz I am scrutinized before they will actually get to the issue on which they were contacted! Run for the hills ma barker!!!!!!

      • Gordon

        Can’t say that I dis-agree with any of that.

  • phideaux

    Time to treat that officer like a common yard dog. Put him on a chain with an unheated house to get in when it rains and make him eat out of a plastic bowl on the ground.

    • roger

      yeah, and he can lick himself for personal hygeine too…………

      troll………………

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