AI
Monday, July 27, 2009 8:26:49 PM
Family questions police shooting of dog
By LARRY HARTSTEIN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A Kirkwood family wants to know why a police officer investigating a home alarm felt compelled to shoot and kill one of their 6-year-old black labs, Ciarra, Saturday morning.
Elizabeth Feichter and her family adopted Ciarra and her sister, Molly, from Georgia Lab Rescue when they were 10 weeks old. According to Feichter, Ciarra was a sweet and docile 65-pounder “who’s never even come close to harming anyone.”
Atlanta police spokeswoman Sgt. Lisa Keyes said the shooting is under investigation, adding, “We emphathize with the homeowner’s loss.” Keyes said she could provide no further information.
Feichter, her husband, and their two sons were visiting family in North Carolina when the shooting happened in the backyard of their Howard Street home. Feichter, 33, who runs a philanthropic consulting firm, said she can’t believe the officer had no choice but to shoot Ciarra.
“He could have said ‘Stop!’, he could have said ‘Wait!’, he could have pulled out Mace, he could have just stepped behind our garden fence, he could have fired into the ground,” she said. “Ciarra would have taken off and sat shivering in a corner. She’s very timid.”
It was about 9 a.m. Saturday when the family got a call from the alarm company saying the alarm was going off. They couldn’t immediately reach their house sitter, who had gone out for breakfast, so they called 911.
Soon they reached the sitter, Hilary Stewart, who returned to find the front and back doors locked. Apparently, it was a false alarm.
“The officer pulled up at that moment, so I said, ‘Let me talk to him,’” Feichter said. “We spent a few moments joking because he was the officer who had come out when our cars got broken into six months ago. He said, ‘No big deal, I don’t mind coming out.’
“Then he said he was just going to take a look around and make sure everything was safe.”
He gave the phone back to Stewart. Feichter heard her say the dogs had gotten out into the backyard.
“Then she said, ‘Oh my God! He just shot her,’” Feichter recalled.
Neighbors rushed over. Ashley Derrick and Alison Grounds picked up Ciarra and drove her to the vet, but it was too late.
In an email to members of the East Lake Neighbors Community Association, Derrick wrote that she arrived to find the officer beside the dog.
“I asked why he had to shoot her,” she wrote. “He could give me no answer.”
Stewart could not immediately be reached; she left Sunday on a scheduled mission trip. And Feichter did not recall the officer’s name.
Feichter said her two sons, 12 and 8, are traumatized. She said she chose to speak out for one main reason.
“We don’t want this to happen to anyone else,” she said.
http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/family-questions-police-shooting-101050.html
By LARRY HARTSTEIN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A Kirkwood family wants to know why a police officer investigating a home alarm felt compelled to shoot and kill one of their 6-year-old black labs, Ciarra, Saturday morning.
Elizabeth Feichter and her family adopted Ciarra and her sister, Molly, from Georgia Lab Rescue when they were 10 weeks old. According to Feichter, Ciarra was a sweet and docile 65-pounder “who’s never even come close to harming anyone.”
Atlanta police spokeswoman Sgt. Lisa Keyes said the shooting is under investigation, adding, “We emphathize with the homeowner’s loss.” Keyes said she could provide no further information.
Feichter, her husband, and their two sons were visiting family in North Carolina when the shooting happened in the backyard of their Howard Street home. Feichter, 33, who runs a philanthropic consulting firm, said she can’t believe the officer had no choice but to shoot Ciarra.
“He could have said ‘Stop!’, he could have said ‘Wait!’, he could have pulled out Mace, he could have just stepped behind our garden fence, he could have fired into the ground,” she said. “Ciarra would have taken off and sat shivering in a corner. She’s very timid.”
It was about 9 a.m. Saturday when the family got a call from the alarm company saying the alarm was going off. They couldn’t immediately reach their house sitter, who had gone out for breakfast, so they called 911.
Soon they reached the sitter, Hilary Stewart, who returned to find the front and back doors locked. Apparently, it was a false alarm.
“The officer pulled up at that moment, so I said, ‘Let me talk to him,’” Feichter said. “We spent a few moments joking because he was the officer who had come out when our cars got broken into six months ago. He said, ‘No big deal, I don’t mind coming out.’
“Then he said he was just going to take a look around and make sure everything was safe.”
He gave the phone back to Stewart. Feichter heard her say the dogs had gotten out into the backyard.
“Then she said, ‘Oh my God! He just shot her,’” Feichter recalled.
Neighbors rushed over. Ashley Derrick and Alison Grounds picked up Ciarra and drove her to the vet, but it was too late.
In an email to members of the East Lake Neighbors Community Association, Derrick wrote that she arrived to find the officer beside the dog.
“I asked why he had to shoot her,” she wrote. “He could give me no answer.”
Stewart could not immediately be reached; she left Sunday on a scheduled mission trip. And Feichter did not recall the officer’s name.
Feichter said her two sons, 12 and 8, are traumatized. She said she chose to speak out for one main reason.
“We don’t want this to happen to anyone else,” she said.
http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/family-questions-police-shooting-101050.html
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