Federal Court Rules Police Can Shoot a Dog if It Moves or Barks When Officers Enter a Home
A ruling by the 6th Circuit Federal Court in Michigan last week gave police nationwide the authority to shoot a dog if it moves or barks when officers enter a home.
The decision stems from a 2013 incident in Michigan where constabulary shot and killed 2 dogs while executing a search warrant looking for drugs inside the home of Mark and Cheryl Brown. Following the incident, the Browns filed a petition with the court to concord the officers and city of Battle Creek responsible for the deaths of their dogs .
One officer testified that he shot the first dog afterwards information technology "had merely moved a few inches" in a movement that he considered to be a "lunge." The canis familiaris then ran abroad from the officer to the basement, where it was shot once again and killed.
The 2d canis familiaris was shot in the Brown'south basement afterward it was just barking at the police force, court documents said. The officeholder "testified that after he shot and killed the first domestic dog, he noticed the 2nd dog standing nearly halfway across the basement," the courtroom's opinion explained. "The 2nd dog was non moving towards the officers when they discovered her in the basement, but rather she was 'only standing there,' barking and was turned sideways to the officers." The aforementioned officer shot the domestic dog twice earlier a second officer "didn't want to run across it suffer,' then he put her out of her misery and fired the last shot," killing her.
"Given the totality of the circumstances and viewed from the perspective of an objectively reasonable officer, the canis familiaris poses an imminent threat to the officeholder's safety," Guess Eric Clay wrote in the decision. "The standard we fix out today is that a law officeholder'due south apply of deadly force against a canis familiaris while executing a search warrant to search a dwelling for illegal drug activity is reasonable nether the Fourth Amendment when…the dog poses an imminent threat to the officer's rubber."
According to court documents (beneath), the ruling allows "for the fact that constabulary officers are often forced to brand split-2d judgments."
View the court documents here:
Court documents noted that the officers were enlightened, by a "Beware of Dogs" sign posted outside the home, verbally from the dogs' owner, and past personally witnessing the dogs through a window before entering, that at least two dogs were present inside the abode.
According to courtroom documents, federal courts take as well ruled that the "unreasonable killing of a dog" does constitute a "devastation of holding" under the Fourth Amendment.
Yet, in this case, the court sided with the officers.
Source: https://www.dogingtonpost.com/federal-court-ruling-police-can-shoot-a-dog-if-it-moves-or-barks-when-officers-enter-a-home/
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