Answering alarm, Oakland police kill family dog

[Silent_Bob]

I guess this gets filed under: DON'T EVER CALL THE POLICE


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/01/BA341FMDDO.DTL


(09-30) 18:25 PDT OAKLAND -- Mary Kate Hallock arrived at her Oakland hills home after running errands Tuesday and found a blue note fluttering on her front door.

"Oakland police responded to your residence to investigate a burglar alarm," the handwritten note read. "While circling the rear perimeter, lab advanced on officers in a threatening manner before being shot and killed."

"Lab" was Gloria, an 11-year-old, arthritic yellow Labrador Hallock's family had owned since she was a puppy. Oakland police shot Gloria three times with a 40-caliber Glock handgun in the family's backyard while responding to a false burglar alarm at the property. The dog, police said, growled and barked at them.

"I probably read that note 10 times," Hallock, an Oakland preschool teacher, said Thursday. "I was incredulous. Gloria's never bit anyone. She's just a gentle old dog, a classic Lab, always wagging her tail."

Oakland police defended the shooting as a necessary action.

"My heart goes out to the family," said police spokesman Jeff Thomason. "We never want to go into a situation where we hurt a family pet, but in the course of doing our job, sometimes we have to make split-second decisions."

The shooting occurred just a few months after Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts called for a review of police procedures after the controversial videotaped police shooting of a young deer that was cornered in an East Oakland backyard. Officers in that case fired six rounds.

The Tuesday incident began after Hallock left her home on Burgos Avenue in the quiet Knowland Park neighborhood just north of the Oakland Zoo. Hallock had set the burglar alarm, and as she had done many times before, she left the downstairs back door open so Gloria could have refuge from the heat in the fenced backyard.

The dog apparently tripped the alarm around noon, and the police showed up a few minutes later.

As officers circled the house, they saw the back door open and thought an intruder was inside, Thomason said. At that point, Gloria allegedly growled and barked at the officers, and one of the officers fired three rounds, all of which hit the dog - at least one in the head.

Police declined to name the officer who fired his weapon. The officer has not been placed on leave and continues to work, Thomason said. "This situation was very unusual," Thomason said, noting that officers usually encounter aggressive dogs in backyards during chases. "It was a very unfortunate but necessary action."
'The kids were crying'

When approached by a threatening dog, officers can use pepper spray, a Taser or gun to deter the animal. In this case, the officer probably didn't have time for pepper spray or Tasers, Thomason said.

The Hallocks, meanwhile, are devastated. On Tuesday, after the family called a number left on the note, they learned Gloria's body had been taken to the city's animal shelter. An Oakland police captain then showed up at the Hallock home to apologize.

Hallock's husband Ward, a warehouse manager, brought Gloria's body home from the shelter, wrapped in a blanket.

"The kids were crying," Mary Kate Hallock said, referring to her children, Matthew, 15, and Isabel, 11. "We all sat around with her, put our hands on her, told stories about her."

On Wednesday, the family had Gloria cremated. They plan to bury the ashes in the backyard.

Like many older dogs, Gloria suffered from hip dysplasia and other joint ailments that prevented her from moving freely, Hallock said. She barked occasionally at strangers, but her unease would quickly dissolve into friendly tail-wagging.

While the Hallocks understand that police occasionally make mistakes, they're still reeling from what they considered the department's callous handling of the incident.

"It was like a physical blow," Hallock said. "It just didn't feel right. The officer who later apologized sounded sincere, but it would have been nice to hear from the officer who actually shot her."

Oakland police are reviewing the incident, which is standard procedure in any case involving a fatal shooing, Thomason said.
Deer killed in May

In May, police shot a deer that had leapt over a fence into a backyard on the 1700 block of 90th Avenue in East Oakland. When the deer did not die right away, police continued to fire at the animal.

The incident was captured on video by a neighbor and ignited a furor from residents and wildlife advocates.

After that shooting, Batts expressed his disappointment: "I'm unhappy with the results of this incident. I do not like what I saw."

"We are reviewing our policies and our procedures surrounding this incident to ensure that something like this does not happen again," he added.

He was unavailable for comment Thursday.

E-mail Carolyn Jones at carolynjones@sfchronicle.com.

[PattyLee loves dogs]