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kevin922

Police Shoot Dog During Traffic Stop -- Had the wrong people. (OH MY GOSH!)

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This is HORRIBLE. I hope these people win their lawsuit. More info also found here


COOKEVILLE, Tennessee (CNN) -- Police video released Wednesday showed a North Carolina family kneeling and handcuffed, who shrieked as officers killed their dog -- which appeared to be playfully wagging its tail -- with a shotgun during a traffic stop.

The Smoak family was pulled over the evening of January 1 on Interstate 40 in eastern Tennessee by officers who mistakenly suspected them of a carjacking. An investigation showed James Smoak had simply left his wallet on the roof of his car at a gas station, and motorists who saw his money fly off the car as he drove away called police.

The family was driving through eastern Tennessee on their way home from a New Year trip to Nashville. They told CNN they are in the process of retaining a lawyer and considering legal action against the Cookeville, Tennessee, Police Department and the Tennessee Highway Patrol for what happened to them and their dog.

In the video, released by the highway patrol, officers are heard ordering the family, one by one, to get out of their car with their hands up. James Smoak and his wife, Pamela, and 17-year-old son Brandon are ordered onto their knees and handcuffed.

"What did I do?" James Smoak asks the officers.

"Sir, inside information is that you was involved in some type of robbery in Davidson County," the unidentified officer says.

Smoak and his wife protest incredulously, telling the officers that they are from South Carolina and that their mother and father-in-law are traveling in another car near them.

The Smoaks told CNN that as they knelt, handcuffed, they pleaded with officers to close the doors of their car so their two dogs would not escape, but the officers did not heed them.

Pamela Smoak is seen on the tape looking up at an officer, telling him slowly, "That dog is not mean. He won't hurt you."

Her husband says, "I got a dog in the car. I don't want him to jump out."

The tape then shows the Smoaks' medium-size brown dog romping on the shoulder of the Interstate, its tail wagging. As the family yells, the dog, named Patton, first heads away from the road, then quickly circles back toward the family.

An officer in a blue uniform aims his shotgun at the dog and fires at its head, killing it immediately.

For several moments, all that is audible are shrieks as the family reacts to the shooting. James Smoak even stands up, but officers pull him back down.

"Y'all shot my dog! Y'all shot my dog!" James Smoak cries. "Oh my God! God Almighty!"

"You shot my dog!" screams his wife, distraught and still handcuffed. "Why'd you kill our dog?"

"Jesus, tell me, why did y'all shoot my dog?" James Smoak says.

The officers bring him to the patrol car, and the family calms down, but still they ask the officers for an explanation. One of them says Patton was "going after" the officer.

"No he wasn't, man," James Smoak says. "Y'all didn't have to kill the dog like that."

Brandon told CNN that Patton, was playful and gentle -- "like Scooby-Doo" -- and may have simply gone after the beam of the flashlight as he often did at home, when Brandon and the dog would play.

The Tennessee Department of Safety, which oversees the Highway Patrol, has said an investigation is underway.

'Could have been avoided'
Cookeville Police Chief Robert Terry released a statement on the department's Web site Wednesday night describing the department's regret over the incident. The Cookeville Police Department site was not responding Thursday morning.

"I know the officer wishes that circumstances could have been different so he could have prevented shooting the dog," Terry wrote. "It is never gratifying to have to put an animal down, especially a family pet, and the officer assures me that he never displayed any satisfaction in doing so."

Terry said he and the vice-mayor of Cookeville met with the family before they left "to convey our deepest sympathies" for the loss of their dog.

"No one wants to experience this kind of thing, and it's very unfortunate that it occurred," he wrote. "If we had the benefit of hindsight, I'm sure some -- if not all of this -- could have been avoided. I believe the Tennessee Highway Patrol feels the same way."

The department is conducting an investigation to determine what, if anything, could have been done differently, he said. Police also plan to be in contact with the Smoak family, Terry said.

The Smoaks buried their pet at home. A white cross marks the grave.

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This is HORRIBLE.


I agree. I can almost understand why they did the full on felony stop, but shooting their dog? Way over the top.

If that was my dog and my family, I'd become that cop and that city's police and legal departments worst nightmare.

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I am not a pet person and don't really like dogs... but damn. That is just way over the top and I surely hope the family gets a little more than a visit from the vice-fucking-mayor and some stupid ass contact with the family.

Simply disgusting. >:(

http://www.brandonandlaura.com

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Another PERFECT example of why my Dad had all his men with 5yrs experience before that could apply AND a full Psychological evaluation before they were considered for working under him.:|

_______________________________
If I could be a Super Hero,
I chose to be: "GRANT-A-CLAUS". and work 365 days a Year.
http://www.hangout.no/speednews/

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>This is sickening.

Yep. And what really bothers me is not that they shot the dog. It's that they pulled a family out of a car and handcuffed them at gunpoint (_and_ shot the dog) because one witness (Mrs. Grundy) thought she saw something suspicious. Police should know better.

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Im just curious...

Why is it that whenever a skydiving fatality happens and someone posts a story the FIRST thing that people reply is "lets wait for the official report before we jump to any conclusions".

But, by God when a cop story comes out and it looks bad, the cops sure fucked that up!

You know what? I wasnt out there. I dont know what happened. The cops might have fucked up. And they might not have. He had a split second to make a decision and maybe he made the wrong one. YOU have the luxury to armchair quarterback it to death from the comfort of your computer chair.

The whole situation sounds like it was screwed up. Not enough information to go on, bad witnesses, etc, but the stop had to be made and the report investigated. Soundslike it went downhill from there.

Best case scenario, is they STILL made a stop based on crappy information, the dog tried to protect his family and STILL got killed. Either way the dog is dead and the cops look like shit.

This stuff just pisses me off.

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But, by God when a cop story comes out and it looks bad, the cops sure fucked that up!



Give snipercj a cigar. If you want your group to be treated fairly, then you should really be prepared to treat others fairly, and be pissed off if they aren't. Really.

Even Arab terrorists, liberals, and Bushies.

Wendy W.
There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

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Why is it that whenever a skydiving fatality happens and someone posts a story the FIRST thing that people reply is "lets wait for the official report before we jump to any conclusions".

But, by God when a cop story comes out and it looks bad, the cops sure fucked that up!

You know what? I wasnt out there. I dont know what happened. The cops might have fucked up. And they might not have. He had a split second to make a decision and maybe he made the wrong one. YOU have the luxury to armchair quarterback it to death from the comfort of your computer chair.

The whole situation sounds like it was screwed up. Not enough information to go on, bad witnesses, etc, but the stop had to be made and the report investigated.

Well said.

Thank you.

Mike.

Taking the piss out of the FrenchAmericans since before it was fashionable.

Prenait la pisse hors du FrançaisCanadiens méridionaux puisqu'avant lui à la mode.

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You know what? I wasnt out there. I dont know what happened. The cops might have fucked up. And they might not have. He had a split second to make a decision and maybe he made the wrong one.



How do you know he made a split second decision? The only facts I've read are 1) some people were wrongly stopped/accused/detained and 2) their dog was intentionally shot by a policeman.

Bob

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How do you know he made a split second decision? The only facts I've read are 1) some people were wrongly stopped/accused/detained and 2) their dog was intentionally shot by a policeman.



At the risk of an argument, isn't it pretty much a cop's job to respond to a call about a stolen car or robbed convenience store or whatever by pulling over the vehicle in question and safely ascertaining whether or not the call was correct or not? Don't get me wrong, I hate to see an animal suffer needlessly, but are you telling me that if a person honestly feels threatened by a dog they shouldn't do anything? I'm not saying these cops were actually threatened, but if they were, would they still be in the wrong?


Truman Sparks for President

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The cops might have fucked up.

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Ya Think? They pulled over a innocent family, Handcuffed them by gunpoint and had them kneel on the side of the road and shot there dog.
*** He had a split second to make a decision and maybe he made the wrong one.

It takes a split second to pull over a innocent family,Handcuff them by gunpoint, Kneel them on the side of the road and ignore there pleas to close the fucking door to keep there dog inside the car?

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The whole situation sounds like it was screwed up.

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Again, Ya Think?

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bad witnesses, etc,

Yeah that video is always wrong.
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but the stop had to be made and the report investigated.

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You got one right but did they have to pull a innocent family out of there car by gunpoint and shoot there dog while they watch handcuffed and kneeling on the side of a road?

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Sounds like it went downhill from there.

You should be a detective.

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Best case scenario, is they STILL made a stop based on crappy information, the dog tried to protect his family and STILL got killed. Either way the dog is dead and the cops look like shit.

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Hey you got another one right.

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This stuff just pisses me off.

Get pissed off a little easy there don't you? Not exactly a great trait for a public servant with a gun now is it? What's wrong?, Mad you where not there to plant a extra gun under the dogs collar to help out a buddy?
:o


------Have a good one!--------

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They had the details of the wallet, cross-check licence in wallet against car tags= no problem, dog alive, people not handcuffed at gun point.
xj

"I wouldn't recommend picking a fight with the earth...but then I wouldn't recommend picking a fight with a car either, and that's having tried both."

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Remember kids.

A puppy isn't just for christmas.

It's for target practice too.

I'm sure this video will crop up on TV time and time again when the poor family sue the Police Dept for as much cash as they are greedy enough to demand.

It was a dog, and could have been acting defensive. My dog scares the shit out of me when it barks at nothing in the middle of the night, which turns out to be the neighbours coming in .

It's pretty shitty the family had to see it get shot, but we were'nt in that cops shoes and dont know what he was thinking. I very much doubt the cop shot it for kicks, after all he wasn't LAPD.

It could have been worse, they could have been pulled over in Iraq, and seen the wife stoned to death for .... well pretty much anything really.

Buzz
It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.

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>It could have been worse, they could have been pulled over in Iraq,
> and seen the wife stoned to death for .... well pretty much anything
>really.

Exactly. If you're going to get in trouble in the Middle East, best get in trouble in Afghanistan, which we liberated. I hear you need three witnesses instead of just one before you can stone a woman to death for just about anything.

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At the risk of an argument, isn't it pretty much a cop's job to respond to a call about a stolen car or robbed convenience store or whatever by pulling over the vehicle in question and safely ascertaining whether or not the call was correct or not? Don't get me wrong, I hate to see an animal suffer needlessly, but are you telling me that if a person honestly feels threatened by a dog they shouldn't do anything? I'm not saying these cops were actually threatened, but if they were, would they still be in the wrong?



Argument? Huh? I was merely pointing out that the poster wrote they weren't there and didn't see what happened, but that the cop made a split second decision.

The only real information I got from reading the article was a mistaken identity and a dead dog.

Bob

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They had the details of the wallet, cross-check licence in wallet against car tags= no problem, dog alive, people not handcuffed at gun point.



The story doesn't say the police who pulled them over had the wallet or the details, only that they were mistakenly suspected of carjacking. It says an investigation showed the guy had forgotten his wallet, but doesn't say when the investigation took place.

Bob

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This was a cop. Cops have procedure. And I'm absolutely certain that it does not involve handcuffing a family (with children, no less) at gunpoint based on one witness who said he may have seen something. The dog part is irrelevant to the above. That is already wrong and more than enough grounds for a lawsuit. This is one of the things you really don't want police doing.

And then a policeman feels threatened by a dog. Maybe it was a big mean angry dog. From the article that is decribing a video, it doesn't seem to be. They may be lying, but they would have to be lying outright. Creative interpretation of facts, yes, but lying? Stretching it a little, no? If you are scared of an obviously playful dog, policing may not be the job for you.

These cops sound like a bunch of joyriders to me. Just cause they're cops doesn't mean they're not assholes. In some countries, +ahem+Russia+ahem+, you can be pulled over by a cop, a real cop, for the explicit purpose of being RAPED. That sound right to you? Do we need to investigate that too?

As to media, of course they don't do a good job of covering pretty much anything, but you have to draw a line at something. If not, just don't read any news articles at all. Better yet, learn to separate the facts from the observations. Something captured on video sounds like fact to me.

-- Toggle Whippin' Yahoo
Skydiving is easy. All you have to do is relax while plummetting at 120 mph from 10,000' with nothing but some nylon and webbing to save you.

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"Something captured on video sounds like fact to me."

Sounds like a video to me.

Unless you were there or have seen the video and believe it to be a true and accurate record of the events, you can take nothing as fact.

"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out."
Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.

"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible."
Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.

"640K ought to be enough for anybody."
Bill Gates, 1981

Nothing is a fact, to those with an open mind.

Buzz
It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.

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"Something captured on video sounds like fact to me."

Sounds like a video to me.



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As to media, of course they don't do a good job of covering pretty much anything, but you have to draw a line at something. If not, just don't read any news articles at all. Better yet, learn to separate the facts from the observations. Something captured on video sounds like fact to me.



Do you watch the news? If yes, why?

Even ignoring the dog, why did they handcuff them at gunpoint if they were not resisting? Having trouble coming up with a good reason for that.

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"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out."
Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.

"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible."
Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.

"640K ought to be enough for anybody."
Bill Gates, 1981



Did you notice that these are all opinions, not facts? Just because it doesn't say "In my opinion...", does not mean it isn't.

-- Toggle Whippin' Yahoo
Skydiving is easy. All you have to do is relax while plummetting at 120 mph from 10,000' with nothing but some nylon and webbing to save you.

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Zinger,

That whole post of yours was so assinine, I wont even dignify most of it with a response.

The fact that the family was wrongly stopped and pulled out of their (not 'there', you little spelling wizard you) car at gunpoint was based, let us not forget, on a witness/citizen at the gas station. THIS was the witness I was referring to, not the video. I'm sure everybody but you figured that out. You want to blame somebody for this fiasco, blame the citizen. Maybe they should have minded their own business.

The only procedural issue I have a problem with is not closing the car door and keeping the dog inside. The stop, the gunpoint, the handcuffs are all good in my book for a car stop on a possible car jacking suspect.

Unfortunately that one miscue precipitated the rest of this deal. Otherwise its a non-issue.

Get a grip on yourself.

JC

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