An Iowa police officer who shot and killed his own dog on August 21 has been found to have also run over and killed another dog with his police vehicle on July 13.
According to the Davenport Police Department News ReleaseOfficer Ethan Bock responded to a call about four dogs loose that appeared to be aggressive.
“Officers were responding to a call in an alley in the 2100 block of Telegraph Road when a dog ran out of a yard in the direction of the officers.” The police department wrote:
“The released video shows the officer slowly backing away as the dog advances. The dog’s behavior became aggressive and the officer fired his firearm at the dog. The dog died from its injuries.”
But the family The video was released Regarding the fatal encounter with police, dog owner Don Hesseltine (formerly Twitter user) posted security camera footage of a police officer shooting and killing his 2-year-old dog, Mist, in front of his children and nephew.
Hesseltine said officers drove by and instructed the children to put their dogs on leashes, and when the children complied, Officer Bock got out of his car and went to the children’s home.
“The dog ran up to him and he decided the best option was to pull out his gun and kill the dog in front of my child, his cousin and his mother. They were just standing there and could easily have been shot.” He wrote:
In the shocking footage, two children can be heard screaming and sobbing after hearing the gunshots, before the screaming dog tries to run inside the house but gives way and dies on the family’s doorstep.
“Oh no!” the mother can be heard repeatedly screaming as the two children continue to cry.
Hesseltine provides additional footage and background information about what Mist was doing prior to the incident.
In additional footage, Mist can be seen playing with Heseltine’s children and nephew.
He writes: “Officers responded to a call from a few blocks away looking for four dogs that had entered a woman’s yard and were attacking her dog – not a dog playing peacefully with children.”
After the incident, Hesseltine GoFundMe The goal is to raise funds for counselling and legal costs as the family seeks justice for what happened to their beloved dog.
Hesseltine wrote “This fight isn’t just about our dogs – it’s about standing up against this cruelty and making sure no one else has to endure what we went through.”
The incident sparked outrage on social media, with local residents calling for the officers to be fired.
But the outrage didn’t end there. On August 28, the Davenport Police Department released a new statement defending the officers’ actions. They said: “Based on a review of the facts, it has been determined that the officers’ actions were lawful.”
A few days later, the police station Body camera footage of the incident.
A Facebook user wrote: “Nobody was in danger. There was no situation that required the officer to get out of his car. He created the situation. And he chose the worst option.”
“Should he have kept the dog on a leash? If so, would your husband have been dead if he had stayed in the patrol car even a minute longer? No, instead he made a poor decision that took the life of the family dog and injured a woman, her child and her nephew.” another user wrote.
To add fuel to the fire, it was discovered that the same officer involved in the fatal shooting had run over another dog in July.
According to the Quad City Times, the incident occurred on July 13th. New York Post.
A man named Sedward Spears said he was taking out the trash with his dog around 10 p.m. when he was confronted by Officer Ethan Bock.
Spears told the news outlet that she warned officers about the dog, who was on a leash and on the loose. “I said, ‘Dog, stop,’ and he stopped. He saw me. And he sped off.”
Body camera footage of Bock obtained by the outlet showed the officer exiting his police vehicle and approaching the dead dog.
“That’s why you have to keep your dog on a lead.” Bock tells a confused Spears.
