Photo via Sarah Schielke – The Life & Liberty Law Office/YouTube
August 27, 2021, 11:22 am
The Loveland Police Department in Colorado is facing another lawsuit after an officer shot and killed a 14-month-old puppy that jumped out of the owner’s vehicle and excitedly ran to greet him in an empty parking lot. Body camera footage posted to YouTube shows Officer Matthew Grashorn getting out of his vehicle to approach a couple that had parked in an empty lot to let their dogs run around. As one dog gets up from where he was laying, the officer draws his firearm. A puppy jumps out of the truck and as it runs to greet Grashorn, he shoots the dog twice.
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The puppy, Herkimer, instantly falls to the ground. After Grashorn turns on the audio recording on his body cam, dog mom Wendy Love can be heard sobbing and begging him to let her hold Herkimer as he lies dying on the pavement while the officer angrily shouts at her to get back in her truck. He finally relents and lets her go comfort her puppy, still warning her that the dog will bite her because he’s hurt, but that does not appear to happen.
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According to the lawsuit filed by Love and her husband Jay Hamm, Herkimer was in the truck when the officer arrived and jumped out when their other dog, who was running around the lot, began to approach him. The other, older dog complied with the owners’ call to return, but the excited and inexperienced puppy did not.
The couple was reportedly not allowed to take Herkimer to the vet until Grashorn’s supervisor arrived eight minutes later. After four days of intensive care, the young dog had to be euthanized.
Grashorn claimed that he feared the puppy was going to bite him in spite of no signs of actual aggression coming from the canine. Love and Hamm say that Herkimer was a “sweet” and “loving” dog with no history of biting whatsoever. The officers then tried to charge the couple with a “dangerous dog” offense, but this was quickly dismissed by the district attorney’s office.
“Herkimer was clearly a friendly dog and not dangerous to anybody,” said attorney Sarah Schielke. “He looked like he was curious and excited to greet this officer, and watching him get shot in the head and fall down was traumatic.”
“The only thing that could be worse than watching a video like this is watching a video like this and not doing anything about it.”
In addition to shooting and killing humans, U.S. cops have a long and checkered history of killing people’s dogs for little to no reason, seeming to feel that a deadly response is necessary to any situation they might conceive to have even the slightest chance of being dangerous to them. Others who kill dogs so obviously without cause face charges, but less training than a hairstylist and a badge allows you to do whatever you want.
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Schielke herself has filed two other lawsuits against the Loveland Police Department on behalf of her clients, according to the Washington Post, including a wrongful arrest suit that was settled for $290,000 just last month. Some might also recognize this as the same police department responsible for terrorizing, injuring, and refusing to get medical treatment for an elderly woman with dementia who was walking home after forgetting to pay for $13.88 worth of items from Walmart.
*First Published: August 27, 2021, 11:22 am
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