Surveillance video posted to Facebook early Sunday morning shows a Minneapolis police officer shooting two dogs in the owner’s fenced-in backyard.
MINNEAPOLIS – Surveillance video posted to Facebook early Sunday morning shows a Minneapolis police officer shooting two dogs in the owner’s fenced-in backyard.
Police issued a statement Sunday, saying that officers were responding to a residential burglary alarm when the shooting occurred.
In the video, a dog is seen approaching the officer in the north Minneapolis yard. The officer backs away and shoots the dog, and then a second dog runs in and the officer appears to shoot that dog as well. The dogs run away and the officer can be seen climbing the fence and leaving the yard.
The police report states that “two large size pit bulls charged at officer” before he fired at them.
The dog’s owner, Jennifer LeMay, said on Facebook that the dogs were not attacking or charging at the officer. The video was from her home security system and she posted it at 12: 37 a.m. Sunday. As of 6 p.m. it had been viewed nearly 100,000 times.
“My dog had stopped. My dog wasn’t even facing him to charge him or be in an aggressive manner to him. You still shot him, ” she said.
LeMay has set up a GoFundMe to help with the dogs’ medical bills. She said on Facebook that one dog, Rocko, is doing OK after surgery. She says the vet is more worried about the other, Ciroc, who has a fractured jaw.
The Minneapolis Police Department Internal Affairs Unit is investigating the shooting.
“Anytime an officer discharges their firearm in the line of duty there is an investigation that is completed by the Minneapolis Police Department’s Internal Affairs Unit, ” the statement said. “We are in the process of reviewing the video posted online, as well as the officer’s body camera video. We have reached out to the owner of the dogs and will continue to do so during the investigation. At this time there is no further information we can release.”
Warning: The below video is disturbing.
