A Missouri police officer has been placed on leave after body camera footage showed him fatally shoot a small deaf and blind dog.
On May 19, a woman found a small white blind and deaf Shih Tzu in her yard, later identified as “Teddy.” The woman gave Teddy water and went on social media to try to find his owner, according to a lawsuit filed May 28 by the dog’s owner.
After about an hour, the woman called police to help her locate Teddy’s owner, the lawsuit said. The dispatcher asked the woman if the dog was acting aggressively, and she said, “no, not at all,” according to the lawsuit.
Body camera footage obtained by KOMU shows officer Myron Woodson attempt to catch the dog with a catchpole for several minutes.
“Come on baby,” Woodson can be heard saying. “I’m gonna take you to get help.”
At no point in the video does Teddy bark at the officer. The dog can be seen walking around an open field and trying to avoid the catchpole.
“Defendant Woodson’s inability to catch Teddy was due to his own improper use of, and/or inability to properly use, the catch-pole,” the lawsuit said. “Teddy did not show or display any signs of aggression towards Defendant Woodson at any point.”
Teddy began to “trot” away from Woodson, according to the lawsuit.
“In trotting away from Defendant Woodson, Teddy’s head was completely facing away from Defendant Woodson with Teddy’s rear (and most vulnerable part of his body) fully exposed to Defendant Woodson and Teddy’s tail wagging in the air,” the lawsuit said.
About three minutes after making contact with Teddy, Woodson is seen on body camera footage shooting Teddy at close range. After the first shot, he shoots him again, video shows.
Woodson then grabs a container out of his vehicle and puts the dog’s body in it, the video shows.
When the dog’s owner spoke with Woodson, the officer initially told him he thought Teddy was injured, the lawsuit said.
In the body camera footage, the officer can be heard saying to the dog, “what happened to you?… Neck’s broken?”
However, the lawsuit said the dog showed no signs of serious injury.
“The fact that Teddy was trotting around the neighbor’s backyard, had the ability to walk and trot away from Defendant Woodson, and had the ability to evade Defendant Woodson’s attempts to trap him with a catch-pole were and should have been indicative to Defendant Woodson that Teddy was not injured,” the lawsuit said.
On May 23, the City of Sturgeon posted a statement on its Facebook page saying, “The City believes that the officer acted within his authority based on the information available to him at the time to protect against possible injury to citizens from what appeared to be an injured, sick, and abandoned dog.“
However, on May 25, another statement was posted after the city’s mayor resigned.
“The board of Alderman and myself do not agree with (the) former Mayor’s statements and were not giving any notice before release,” the post said. “Like you, we were just as appalled by what we saw. The actions of the Officer involved are not the values and beliefs of the residents of Sturgeon or the board of Alderman.”
Woodson was placed on leave until further notice, the city said.
The lawsuit was filed against Woodson and the city of Sturgeon and is asking for an undetermined amount in damages.
An attorney for Woodson was not listed.
McClatchy News reached out May 29 to the Sturgeon Police Department and the city of Sturgeon but did not immediately hear back.
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