Police Insist Second Video Justifies Dog-Shooting

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In the wake of a shocking video that showed Hawthorne police officers fatally shooting a dog, the department has released a second video that it says exonerates the officers.

After the original cell phone video of the incident was posted to YouTube a week ago, the Southern California police department was bombarded with angry calls and emails, including death threats that prompted the department to take the three officers involved off street duty.

But the video below, taken on a cell phone by a second witness at the scene, shows more of the interactions the dog owner, Leon Rosby, had with police before the shooting. It also more clearly shows the officers' actions before shooting the dog, a large Rottweiler. In the video, the shooting officer reaches his hand toward the dog and hesitates before shooting it four times. …

"Once the officers made the decision to detain Mr. Rosby, they seemed to have no plan in place regarding the handling of his dog. It would seem, in hindsight, that the officers could have simply let Mr. Rosby go temporarily to contain his animal," Helfend told HuffPost. "They then could have permitted Mr. Rosby to phone someone to pick up the dog. The so-called crime that Mr. Rosby supposedly committed was not life-threatening nor was he a danger to the community."

(H/T RightNut)