SWAT Team in Coumbia, MO raid house and kill their dogs

[amandawash]

Originally Posted by yorkieusa

Burton said [B]a federal drug conviction and a history of combative arrests prompted the use of heavy police force.

THIS is why they entered the way they did. The defendant has a history of violence and federal charges. These are the things normal, pro-social and non-criminal minded people don't think or know about. People can have violent criminal histories pages and pages long and you HAVE to act accordingly, which means defensively.

I can't figure out why the video was released??

[Britster]

Originally Posted by yorkieusa

This article tells what happened. You can read the entire article at the link:

The attention has been much grimmer for the Police Department. On Thursday afternoon, Chief Ken Burton held a news conference with Mayor Bob McDavid at Columbia City Hall to combat what he repeatedly called the Internet's mixing of "fact with fiction."

"We're getting death threats from literally all over the world," Burton said, declining to release the names of the officers involved.

Burton sought to put an end to rumors that the pit bull was in a cage when the officers shot it. He also said the corgi had been shot in the paw by accident because it was next to the pit bull when the larger dog became aggressive toward the officers coming in the front door. The pit bull ran away and again threatened officers, who shot it, Burton said.

In the video, "you hear that dog (the corgi) screaming, and that isn't pleasant to listen to," Burton said.

As for Whitworth — who pleaded guilty on April 20 to a misdemeanor charge of unlawful use of drug paraphernalia and was fined $300 — Burton said a federal drug conviction and a history of combative arrests prompted the use of heavy police force. Burton regretted the department waited so long to execute the warrant.

"I don’t think we should have run it eight days later," Burton said. "We should have run it that day. We simply didn’t do it. So we own that, and we’re very sorry it turned out the way it did. None of those officers wanted to hurt that dog — or any dog, as a matter of fact — but it was an unfortunate situation.”

As McDavid stood next to him, Burton said he had changed department policy to conduct raids immediately after a search warrant is obtained. Burton said the department moved slowly in Whitworth's case because the SWAT team is made up of part-time members who hold other jobs within the department.

UPDATE: SWAT raid prompts Columbia police review of policies - Columbia Missourian

It has been stated that the delay in executing the search warrant allowed the deft time to get rid of the drugs in the house.

Sooo because a dog barking or 'screaming' isn't 'pleasant to listen to'... let's just shoot it? Makes a whooolleee lot of sense.

If people ran into my house like that, Jackson would be going crazy barking at them as well, like MOST dogs would... doesn't mean you shoot the dog.

I'm not even defending this guy. Obviously he's a criminal and has been in troubled times in the past. Does that make him necessarily a bad person? No... it usually means they got mixed up in the wrong crowd. But take care of him like they need to, I just didn't see any reason for those animals to be shot.

All I'm sayin' is I don't see ANY reason for those dogs to have been shot. They could have asked the wife to please put the dogs away further so they couldn't be heard or something. Seriously. In the beginning of the tape the husband says 'they're nice dogs' or something like that so an officer could have easily just asked someone to put the dog away if they felt it was threatening them.... which I think MOST dogs wouldn't welcome a SWAT team with open arms.

[yorkieusa]

Originally Posted by Britster

Sooo because a dog barking or 'screaming' isn't 'pleasant to listen to'... let's just shoot it? Makes a whooolleee lot of sense.

If people ran into my house like that, Jackson would be going crazy barking at them as well, like MOST dogs would... doesn't mean you shoot the dog.

I'm not even defending this guy. Obviously he's a criminal and has been in troubled times in the past. Does that make him necessarily a bad person? No... it usually means they got mixed up in the wrong crowd. But take care of him like they need to, I just didn't see any reason for those animals to be shot.

All I'm sayin' is I don't see ANY reason for those dogs to have been shot. They could have asked the wife to please put the dogs away further so they couldn't be heard or something. Seriously. In the beginning of the tape the husband says 'they're nice dogs' or something like that so an officer could have easily just asked someone to put the dog away if they felt it was threatening them.... which I think MOST dogs wouldn't welcome a SWAT team with open arms.

Burton sought to put an end to rumors that the pit bull was in a cage when the officers shot it. He also said the corgi had been shot in the paw by accident because it was next to the pit bull when the larger dog became aggressive toward the officers coming in the front door. The pit bull ran away and again threatened officers, who shot it, Burton said.

[Robin Lodal]

Originally Posted by Britster

Sooo because a dog barking or 'screaming' isn't 'pleasant to listen to'... let's just shoot it? Makes a whooolleee lot of sense.

From that quote, I did not get that impression. I think he was meaning that the dog screaming and barking after it was shot is not a pleasant sound to listen to. I don't think he meant that they shot the dog b/c he was barking.

[mizzwanned]

All I'm saying is I don't think the dogs had to be shot at. My brother is a police officer, as well as my 6 stepbrothers and sisters-4 are NY police officers, one is a detective and one is a sergeant so I understand what goes on and I have def. heard some stories. But in the video I did not hear or see the dogs acting in a threatening matter in any way. And I understand that many drug dealers have dogs on their property to protect them and their drugs but seriously-we would have heard it. I also understand the SWAT team had to protect themselves and I am usually on their side but not on this matter. Poor innocent dogs died. If they shot the corgi by mistake did they kill it? Cause the crying dog stopped after gunshots were heard