via Jennifer LeMay Facebook
Newly released Facebook video shows the moment a uniformed Minneapolis police officer shoots innocent family dogs while investigating a robbery. As of Sunday, July 9, while both dogs were alive, their owner, Jennifer LeMay, was facing thousands of dollars in bills for surgery.
The shooting, which happened around 9:15 PM on Saturday, July 8 in the 3800 block of Queen Avenue N, was recorded by security cameras in LeMay’s backyard.
The dogs, Ciroc and Rocko, are both Staffordshire Terriers who have been in the family since they were puppies.
via Star Tribune:
The daughters arrived at the house at 8:50 p.m. Saturday. One of them accidentally triggered the alarm. LeMay said she phoned the security company and the alarm was deactivated at 8:54 p.m.
At 9:15 p.m., two officers arrived at the home. Neither knocked on the front door, Le May said, but one stayed in front while the other apparently scaled a 7-foot privacy fence to get into the backyard. The video, with no audio, shows an officer standing in the yard. He approaches the house and goes out of camera range. A moment later, he steps back rapidly, his gun drawn.
Ciroc, a white and brown dog, trots toward the officer and stops about 10 feet away. The dog looks distracted but does not appear to be charging the officer. The officer fires, the dog falls and then scrambles to his feet and runs away. At the same time, a black dog runs into camera range. The officer shoots several times and the dog flees.
The officer appears to assess the scene briefly before he leaves the yard by climbing over the fence.
Both dogs went into emergency surgery that night. Ciroc was shot in the jaw, Rocko in the side, face and shoulder. LeMay, who has paid $900 for Ciroc so far, says he still needs $5,000 to $7,000 worth of surgery. However, both dogs have since returned home.
Corey Schmidt, a spokesman for the Minneapolis Police Department, released the following statement:
“We are aware of the recent incident involving MPD officers responding to an audible residential burglary alarm and while at this call an MPD officer discharged their firearm, striking two dogs belonging to the homeowner. Anytime an officer discharges their firearm in the line of duty there is an investigation. We are in the process of reviewing the video posted online, as well as the officer’s body camera video.”
According to LeMary, her 13-year-old daughter saw the shooting from her upstairs bedroom.
via Jennifer LeMay Facebook
A GoFundMe page was created to help LeMay pay the vet bills. At the time of this writing, it has reached it’s $15,000 goal with just under $16,000 donated.
