Police in Sturgeon, Missouri have released bodycam footage of a deadly encounter between an officer and a member of the public that took place on May 21.
The incident happened after police responded to a call from 35 year-old Nick Hunter, who reported that “Teddy,” his white, 13-pound mixed Shih Tzu had gone missing. Hunter informed the dispatcher that the dog was both blind and deaf, though not at all aggressive. He expressed his worry that his dog would meet with an accident before he found his way home.
The Sturgeon Police Department dispatched Officer Myron Woodson to search for the animal.
The search didn’t take long. Mere minutes after being tasked to the call, Officer Woodson located the dog in a yard near Nick Hunter’s house. Bodycam footage shows Woodson approaching the Shih Tzu with a catch pole (a rigid pole with a loop at the end for snaring potentially dangerous animals). The footage shows Teddy trotting about without any particular direction in mind, in apparent distress. Woodson attempted to lasso the dog, who wriggled free of the loop and continued to amble around a large field.
Teddy then proceeded to a stand of trees, where he found a vine to play with.
Then, three minutes after the encounter began, and for no apparent reason, Officer Woodson draws his sidearm and shoots Teddy twice. The dog had made no aggressive move toward the officer, yet bodycam footage shows that the shots were fired six seconds apart.
Officer Woodson then returned to his cruiser and obtained a bin, walked back to Teddy’s corpse, and lifted the limp body into the bin. He then returned the receptacle to the back of his police cruiser.
When asked by the dog’s owner what happened, Woodson claimed that he spent ten minutes trying to get the attention of the dog who was “walking around blindly,” and said he had no choice.
Nick Hunter is planning on suing the department.
