COBB COUNTY, Ga. — Cobb County police have released the body camera footage and 911 calls from the night one of its officers shot and killed a family’s dog.
The body camera video shows the moment a dog ran out of a house and toward officers. When the video is slowed down, the dog appears to nab an officer’s pants before it ran toward the officer who shot and killed it.
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The incident started with a 911 call where you can hear a woman say “Help me, help’” before hanging up.
“We are going to get help to you. What’s the address to where you are?” a 911 operator said on the call.
Police tracked the phone call to Powder Springs and stopped by a home to investigate further. Police identified themselves to the homeowner.
“Yeah, what’s up man?”
“Y’all got screaming going on or something?” one of the officers asked.
Before the homeowner answered police, one of his dogs got out the front door, then another dog got out.
In the video, you can see his wife trying to control the dogs, evening holding one of them by a leash before they got out.
“Get off. Get the dog. Get the dog.”
After that, you hear a gunshot.
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The shooting sparked outrage for the family’s dog, Zeta. The family created a “Justice for Zeta” Facebook page.
Cobb County police chief Stuart VanHoozer said there is an active internal affairs investigation.
“This is also hard on the officers and nobody wants to take a life of any kind but especially a pet in the circumstances we have here,” he said.
The police chief was asked what the protocol is for situations like this.
“The decision making process has to be made by the people in the field that are making that decision for the safety of them and others very very quickly,” he said.
In the video, you can see one of the officers point his Taser, but he did not use it. The chief said he is not going to speculate on why the Taser wasn’t hurt, but said they don’t always work on dogs and often agitate them further.
The family isn’t ready to talk, but say will take legal action against Cobb County Police Department. The father also says that his children saw the incident.
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