Cop Shoots Service Dog During Kid's Birthday Party
On Saturday, a police officer in Filer, Idaho responded to a call about two dogs running around without leashes on a suburban street. Thirty-eight seconds after exiting his patrol car, Officer Tarek Hassani determined that one of the animals was too aggressive and fatally shot it in the front yard of its owner's house. A video (NSFW) shows the 7-year-old black labrador convulsing and whimpering before moving out of the dash cam's line of sight.
The dog, named "Hooch," belonged to Rick Clubb, who says he suffers from Parkinson's disease and that Hooch was his trained service animal. At the time of the shooting, Clubb was apparently inside, hosting his 9-year-old son's birthday party.
Hassani explained to another officer after the altercation ended, "I get out to talk to the people, two dogs come around me, one of them's growling and snarling. I kick it. It comes back around, now it's growling and snarling. I kick it again. Then it lunges at me, I'm like, fuck you. So, I just shot it."
Although it is not visible on the video, the audio picks up the sound of the officer's car door opening and within two seconds, the pet begins yelping, presumably, as Hassani acknowledges, because he kicked it.
Hassani gave Clubb a $100 citation for letting the dog run at-large.
Clubb told KTVB, "My dogs, they'd get out, yes, but you don't have to shoot them. There's other ways around it besides shooting them." He speculated about the officer's action, asking the Times–News, "What if [a bullet] had ricocheted through the window?" Clubb acknowledged, "Maybe I deserve a ticket, but I don't deserve a dead dog."
Police Chief Tim Reeves explained to a local Fox affiliate, "My decision was that [Hassani] did a good job and he was totally justified in putting the dog down."