'Capone' gunned down in Toledo
"Trigger happy in Toledo" was the headline of a Toledo Blade editorial today that criticized a police officer's fatal shooting -- three shots in all -- of a one-year-old boxer named Capone.
Capone was shot Monday by Toledo police Officer Mike Murphy after he arrived at a home on Mulberry Street in response to a complaint about a "roaming" and "possibly vicious" dog.
According to a police incident report, the dog charged the officer and was "barking and acting in a vicious manner." As it turned out, the Blade reported, neighbors did not consider the dog to be dangerous. It was owned by a Andrea Coleman, a Hudson Street woman who trusted the animal with her three children.
In addition to killing Capone, authorities confiscated Coleman's second dog -- a nine-month-old Rottweiler named Momba, pictured above.
"The incident goes to the heart of police-community relations in one of Toledo's poorer neighborhoods," the editorial said. "We cannot imagine a similar situation being handled in such a callous manner in other parts of the city ... Residents of crowded neighborhoods such as the one in question have enough to fear from gang-bangers and other criminals. They shouldn't also be put in danger of police bullets fired in haste at an escaped family pet."
The Blade, in an article yesterday, reported that Coleman had two knocks on her door after the incident was reported in the newspaper. The first was a woman who gave her $90 to help get Momba out of the pound. The second was another woman wanting to help. A few hours later, Coleman and her sister went to to pick up Momba.
"[Are] you ready to go home?" Ms. Coleman asked bending down to his level. "He's so ready. Momba has never barked so much in his life," the newspaper quoted her as saying.
After getting the license and paying the $90 fine, Ms. Coleman and her sister left the dog warden's office, loaded Momba into their car, and headed home.
Police said the shooting will be reviewed by police commanders and submitted to the Firearms Review Board.
You can read the Blade's full editorial here.
You can find its latest news story here.
Photo: Andrea Coleman, right, and her sister, Eleanor Dixon, head home from the pound with Momba, a 9-month-old Rottweiler. Courtesy of The Blade/Jeremy Wadsworth
Comments
How sad. So they also took Momba for no reason? I hope there is some recourse for the family and some justice for Capone.
A few years ago I read that there has been a dramatic increase in police officers shooting dogs, often uncalled for.
One that sticks out in my mind is a dog who had been brought to NY to help search the rubble after the 9/11 attacks. I think it was about a year or so later that the dog was shot by two police officers in the town the dog worked in. The dog was a police dog that his/her handler had commanded to pursue a woman running from the scene of a crime, which the dog did and had a grip on her arm or sleeves or something while the handler went in another direction possibly to pursue another suspect. Two other police officers came upon the scene and when the dog wouldn't let go of the woman, as the dog's handler was not there to give any commands, both police officers shot this 9/11 heroic dog to death at close range. Overkill in that case, too. I wish I could remember the specifics but I read it quite a while ago and have read thousands of animal abuse/deaths since. It was a tragic ending for a heroic dog.
Posted by: Linda | April 26, 2008 10:30 PM