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Youngstown officer followed procedure in dog shooting, chief says
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Curtis Moses of Youngstown said he understands that police officers have a job to do, but he said one Youngstown officer went too far. Moses’ 7-month-old dog, Diva, was fatally shot about 13 times during a pursuit of felony suspects. He shows off the spent bullets and marks and holes on the floor left behind in the wake of the shooting on his E Lucius in Youngstown home.
YOUNGSTOWN — An internal affairs investigation found that a city police officer followed procedure in the shooting death of a dog while pursuing suspects.
“We interviewed the other officers who were the only witnesses to what happened,” said police Chief Jimmy Hughes. “He followed our policies and procedures. Basically, he was in fear for his life.”
Officer Ryan Laatsch was among the officers in an April 5 pursuit of juveniles who’d been driving down South Side streets shooting.
The driver fled from police, and pulled into a front yard on Lucius Avenue where officers chased the five suspects on foot, according to a police report.
One of the youths ran and was followed into the East Lucius Avenue home of Curtis Moses and Darcel Gilmore. The teen ran down the basement stairs to hide and when officers opened the basement door from the kitchen, they were met by the couple’s seven-month-old, 42-pound Akita, Diva.
The dog was aggressive, Hughes said, and Laatsch was within his rights to shoot it to protect himself just as if his life had been threatened by a person.
The couple previously told The Vindicator that the dog, still a puppy, had no history of aggression and had been trained to go upstairs to go outside when the basement door opened.
They said they had no relationship to the teenager who ran into their home. One of the other youths is Gilmore’s son but doesn’t live at the East Lucius home, the couple has said.
Officers didn’t enter the home intending to shoot a dog, Hughes said. But they were looking for the suspects, one of whom entered the home and at least one of whom was likely armed, the chief said.
Laatsch fired 13 rounds at the dog, killing it.
Comments
An officer fires 13 bullets to shoot a dog?? Dog frightened by all the excitement shows protection by become a little aggressive - normal for a dog. Why don't officers take a full course on the behavior of dogs. This would eliminate their foolish actions of 13 bullets which are not needed. We have wild racoons on our property. With a mild speaking voice and a show of no harm the racoons let me pet them - I have never been biten in 20 years because I studied racoons and took a class at a nature reserve. Posted by Cecil
Maybe 13 rounds is excessive but get real! I doubt you would be calm and use a soft voice if you were chasing a potentially armed felon across your yard and one of your raccoons came at you.
Did anyone really expect the internal affairs investigation to have any other outcome. They based their decision on the interviews of the other officers. Even if one of them thought it was excessive, do you think he or she is going to say so? And face the "blackballing" that they would be subjected to for going against a fellow officer. I spoke to a former task force officer. He said he would have shot the dog too. But,only after being bitten!!!
Get Real... Seriously this officer is lucky it wasn't my dog. At about the third round he fired he would have been fired upon, I guarantee the dog would have been the least of his worries. Yes I do have no trespassing signs in my yard and I don't care who came running into my house or yard you shot a member of the family you get returned fire.
I should add, when that former officer said that, he also said it should have been two shots,at the most. He was in a very similar situation doing a drug bust. And a dog two and a half times the size of Akita in this case, only had to be shot ONCE.
That cop is a goof. And time will prove it.
As an animal lover, too bad for the dog, wrong place, wrong time, may Akita rest in peace, likely in a better place now then it was headed. What was the Officer doing when he encountered the dog? Anyone remember? I think he was chasing another animal type, a criminal running on two legs, not responding to a Police Officer's commands, period. If all are such animal lovers then get out there in the Youngstown streets and pick-up a stray dog or cat, feed it, pet it and foster it until a good home is found. Quit whining and start doing.
We have so many unhappy people reading these articles, you should all get out of the house and stop noising into everybody elses business.