Arlington Cop Shoots Dog Kills Owner
Courtesy Arlington Police Department and WFAA

An Arlington, Texas police officer performed a welfare check on a homeless woman Thrusday afternoon. Maggie Brooks was seen lying on the ground behind a local shopping center. When the officer approached Brooks, her dog moved toward him.

That’s when he drew his pistol and fired three shots at the dog.

From the Dallas Morning News . . .

Brooks, the daughter of an Arlington fire captain, was struck once in the chest and died at 6 p.m. at Medical City Arlington Hospital, according to the Tarrant County medical examiner’s office.

The dog survived and was taken to an animal shelter. It was unclear whether it was Brooks’ dog.

The cop had only been on the streets about a month.

The officer, whose name has not been released, is 25 and has been with the department seven years, police said. He started as a detention officer, graduated from the police academy in February and was cleared for field work July 1, police said. …

According to Police Chief Will Johnson, the officer had undergone eight hours of training for canine encounters, as well as mandatory firearms training.

Here’s the AP’s report . . .

A rookie Texas police officer accidentally shot and killed a woman behind a shopping plaza when he fired repeatedly at a dog believed to be hers that was running at him, authorities said Friday.

The officer in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, who was released from supervised duty on July 1, responded to a welfare check Thursday about a woman who appeared to be passed out in a grassy area behind the plaza. Footage from the officer’s body-worn camera released Friday shows the officer walking along a sidewalk and calling out, “Hello. Are you OK?”

The woman replies, “Yeah, I’m fine.” A dog approaches and the officer asks, “Is that your dog?”

As the barking dog runs toward him, the officer yells, “Get back!” He begins to back up and then fires three shots. The woman screams, “Oh, my God!” and continues to cry out.

Police Chief Will Johnson said at a news conference that the dog, which he described as a Labrador mix, weighed about 40 pounds. Investigators think the dog belonged to the woman, who the Tarrant County medical examiner’s office identified as 30-year-old Margarita Victoria Brooks.

Brooks was shot in the “upper torso,” Johnson said. The dog suffered a flesh wound and has been quarantined, the chief said.

“Everything about this call is an absolute tragedy,” a somber Johnson said. “Our hearts are broken for the Brooks family and for the officer involved. Our officer was on scene trying to find an individual who may be suffering from a medical emergency. Clearly, this is not the outcome the officer wanted, nor is it the outcome that the department wanted.”

He said Brooks’ family has been shown the body camera video, and that criminal and administrative investigations are underway.

The 25-year-old officer, whose name hasn’t been released, graduated from the police academy in February and hadn’t fired his service weapon in the line of duty before Thursday, Johnson said. He has been placed on administrative leave.

People who live and work near where the shooting occurred said they often saw Brooks walking with her boyfriend and that the couple appeared to be homeless. They said the pair always had a dog with them.

Larry Hamilton told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that he lives in a nearby apartment but was homeless for several years and knew Brooks. He said she was “a good-hearted person” who always made sure the dog was fed before she was.

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165 COMMENTS

    • This is just a tragic situation. Destroying lives, including the police officers. I would like to see your marksman skills in that situation. Making snarky comments just shows you are an a$$hole.

        • Labrador mix? Looks like maybe 5% lab, 95% pit bull.

          Don’t miss the point here.

          As long as pit bulls are allowed in this country, the police should be scared and should have standing orders to shoot them on sight. If a homeless person is keeping an unleashed (and no doubt unvaccinated, untrained, intact and unlicensed) pit bull, then the risk to the public at large far outweighs the occasional shooting accident such as this. If that dog had attacked a nice white family picnicking in the park, then everyone would be praising the officer and condemning the dog’s owner.

        • “As long as pit bulls are allowed in this country, the police should be scared and should have standing orders to shoot them on sight.”

          Well then, those cops shouldn’t be surprised if they are shot on sight by dog owners who just had their dogs shot, then… 🙂

        • Even in jest that is bad advice, Geoff. Try to explain to a judge that you killed a cop cause he killed your dog.

          Doesn’t matter if the cop was wrong or an asshole. You’ll face murder 1 charges and will be convicted.

        • There are a lot of people that have little, if anything else to give a damn about except their dog. When there are no reasons left to remain in a shitty world, nothing of value left to take, there isn’t a damn thing a high and mighty judge can do to that person. The judge won’t even get his hot air opinion because someone taking a fukitol pill will probably not be taken alive.

          Reign in the gestapo and stop murdering pets.

        • You are projecting, Arc. Maybe you need to seek some counseling. You sound depressed and not entirely rational.

        • The cop was wrong and needs to be fired and then tried for negligent homicide. But the amount of vitriol here against cops. I look forward to watching every One of you pos Blm supporters getting raped and then murdered by the Blm scum whose asses you drink from daily.

      • He shot the dog with the woman in the line of fire.what if she was your mother,or sister the cop needs to be burned

        • Funny how must everyone is talking about the dog here, very few even mentioned that the cop killed an innocent person.
          Cop was sent there to do a welfare check on the woman. She said she was ok, so he kills her. Who ever called the police for the welfare check, got her killed.
          Every time you call the Police, you put someone’s life in danger.

      • Though, I’d like to thank you for for the government officials and the police and that were involved… I’m sure the township can find you a job as a public relations person….

      • Rule #4: Always be sure of your target and what is beyond it. I have no sympathy for the cop. I am confident that he will get off a lot easier than a non-LEO would.

      • It’s possible a greater tragedy has been averted.

        A man who has been in law enforcement for 7 years, through the police academy, apparently supervised on patrol for 6 months, and solo for about 30 days, on his first stressful encounter FORGOT THREE OF THE BASIC RULES OF GUN SAFETY and killed an innocent woman.

        Remember, you have to ignore at least TWO of those rules before anything seriously bad can happen. He over-reacted to the dog and forgot three.

        In addition to the review of his actions the department should be looking VERY closely at his training officer and the procedures taught at their police academy. His FIRST response to the dog was to draw and fire. A man wound this tight should not have been armed on the street without supervision.

      • I totally agree with you JD. What do people not understand that officers put their lives on the line to protect and serve. Look at the 3 officers in Gilroy that went against the gunman who had a semi-automatic weapon, the officers who rushed to the scene in El Paso to evacuate people and take on the shooter, and again this morning in Ohio. While you and I are taking cover or running away, they are advancing and trying to stop the carnage as quickly as possible. If you want to bad mouth officers, be sure they are ones who crossed the line and aren’t making an effort to uphold their oath to serve and protect.

    • Why is the officer not named? If you’re involved in a shooting, in your home, you’re gun is taken and you’re name is in the paper AND you DON”T get a desk job at work, while they sort things out. Sounds like this guy is more dangerous than the average CC license holder. (Don’t the NY cops shoot more bystanders than perps?)

  2. Good thing this wasn’t a story about an “accidental police shooting” of say a Pro2@ person engaged in “Open Carry…” Or COULD be worse…Like Law Enforcement Issuing an unconstitutional “Red Flag Order” to a 64 yr NRA Pro2@ supporter….

  3. What a chickenshit. As someone who’s fought/handled several large dogs and other animals hand to hand I have little tolerance for cowards like this.

      • So you were bit as a child. Get over it. Let me guess you’re pants wetting afraid of bees too.

        • I have never understood cops apparent need to shoot all dogs all the time. Raiding a serious meth lab with obvious guard dogs? Sure, ok, I can see that. But it seems like they shoot dogs that are either clearly not a threat or at least not clearly a threat. If I shot every dog that ran toward me barking, well, I’d still be in prison. Even if I never hit any of the dogs owners.

        • BD THE fact that you think that you’re better than any homeless person or any other person at all is one of the biggest problems in this world today. There are 7 billion people on this planet my guess is that many many many many many of them are better human beings than you are

      • Rabies is a thing of the past, so are the days of dozens of injections. Modern day rabies treatment is a single injection your insurance pays for, that is, if you even think you need it since there were only twenty three cases in the last decade, or two per year. Rabies is also limited now to wildlife. The only thing 99.9% of people should seek treatment for is bacterial infection which is a standard ten day course of antibiotics and the usual wound monitoring, that is, if you got bit.

        https://www.cdc.gov/rabies/location/usa/surveillance/human_rabies.html

        • Wrong – it’s more than a single injection. It’s several painful injections days apart. My wife was bitten by a rabid bat 2 years ago. Luckily, it was on the job so the state paid the $20k+ cost of all those injections. Rabies sucks.

        • 20k or 48k for something like this is the reason we will soon have sucky single payer healthcare, because hospitals are out of control. It costs around $300 per ml or so for the hemoglobin. If I got billed 48k for 3 shots, I would go on a mass shooting myself.

        • How many shots is irrelevant, the disease is so obscenely rare that its an out right waste of money to entertain getting the rabies injection after a bite from anything short of a racoon. The shot is $30,000 if you have no insurance or piss poor insurance. The chick in the article got ripped off by the hospital, it happens all the time and her insurer is negotiating the price down. If you want the 100% full course of treatment well woopie, you get the same cup of tea on the 3rd, 7th, and 14th day and if an injection is painful, don’t get out of bed in the morning, you might stub your toe. I got assembly line vaccinations every time my unit moved, relax your arms and you barely notice it.

          Hospitals screw everyone, they are for profit and if they can charge more, they will. I went to a hospital once for a cut on my thumb, $400 for “doctor’s time”. All he did was clean the wound and superglue it shut, If I knew that was all I was going to get, I would have done it myself. The skin rotted off anyway.

          The other time I got screwed was when I had a barn rat tested for rabies, well, what was left of it after I stomped it to death. If I took two seconds to research the subject, I could have saved myself the money because rats don’t carry rabies outside of a laboratory. Rat fever is the only concern, and infection, both are solved with basic antibiotics. $40 co-pay for a clinic visit + antis, $40 wasted on a rabies test. Since I already had a tetanus shot, I didn’t need that either, insurance would cover it if I did.

          Fancy that, it was the same thumb I cut a chunk out of too. I should have pierced the end of it since the bite went straight through and I could have a little silver bead there.

          If you are still getting the old treatment course spread out over weeks and weeks, you are getting screwed. AT MOST you get four shots, thats if you even want the full “make absolutely sure” treatment.

          The odds of catching rabies in the united states quite literally the same odds of winning the powerball. Not to mention edible rabies vaccine packets are routinely airdropped across the countryside, further suppressing it. Domestic animals, all you need is an antibiotics course, everything else is a shakedown unless you need staples or them fancy new stick on bandages.

          “…she was exposed to rabies or was afraid she might’ve been. So, as you can imagine, she was rather alarmed.”
          And there it is, FEAR, ALARM, PANIC, drives the bills and the injection numbers. Two cases annually, but thousands of courses of treatment. A kitten is extremely unlikely to have rabies, and her irrational fear of an astronomically improbable disease sent her off to run up a bill without even first checking her policy.

          If you read the article, Parker has to pay $344 to cover her deductible, then 10 percent of the bill, this is standard as far as insurance goes. She also got a single injection, not multiple injections. The $48,000 sensationalized figure is purely to make a story out of nothing. $30,000 is the price my policy lists rabies vaccination and if I had no insurance, thats what I would pay out of pocket. Since I have good insurance, I would pay a small fraction of the cost, I would have to consult the policy again for a specific percent.

          She is on the hook for at most, around $5,000 and with the price changes and her insurer negotiating the price, her final bill will likely be half that. All over an irrational fear of catching a disease that has essentially been eradicated, like polio, small pox, etc. Hopefully she knows better next time.

    • If you truly ran into a dog who wanted to damage you, you wouldn’t stand a chance. Pound for pound, they are many times stronger than we. They have weaponry we don’t and have reflexes to put an Olympic athlete to shame. A fifty pound dog has all the tools to: chase down, pull down and kill a full grown deer. Can you.

      • I get what you’re saying, but we’re the top of the food chain because of the one advantage we have over the rest of the animals: our brain. This cowardly officer didn’t use his. I’ve dealt with unruly dogs before, and even had to use my boot to keep some distance. If worse came to worse, I’d try to make a field goal with his head. Putting others in danger by discharging your firearm on the dog should be a last resort.

      • I’m not proud of it, but when I was a kid with a couple of paper routes, I had to kill a couple of Dobies.

        Why? They were set on me while I was trying to collect 10 weeks’ back subscription fees from a guy who turned out to be a drug dealer in our sleepy little vacation hamlet. The first one I had to kill with my feet – I basically kicked him to death, flailing the rib cage. People wonder why I like wearing heavy boots to this day – well, heavy boots once saved my ass. That wasn’t fun.

        The next week, a second Dobie met up with a nice piece of hickory I decided to carry in my paper bag – just in case. Turns out, it was a good idea. I can attest that if you bring down the upper half of a pickaxe handle on a dog’s skull, the dog is DRT.

        After that, the local constabulary finally believed my complaint of “knocking on the door and Doberman dogs just flying out at me” and decided to check out the almost never-seen occupant of the house where the Dobies had emerged from – and they had themselves a nice little drug bust in the process. In the 1970’s, that was a good career boost for a cop in our sleepy little town.

        I never did get paid for the 11 weeks of subscription fees. That was a lot of work for less than $12 back then.

        So it can be done. Been there, done it. Still don’t like Dobermans.

        Never had a problem with any other dogs on my paper routes as a kid, and I had all sorts of big dogs on my routes.

      • Predators are in search of an easy meal, not a fight to the death. Only dogs bred and abused for the purpose fight like that. Most think better of things after a good kick in the face. I’ve had a dog hanging off my arm before and the only reason it was not dead is I didn’t want to kill it. I worked with large vicious dogs as an assistant in a veterinary hospital as a teen and I’ve never feared for my life from them.

        I’m not a deer. I have goats, cattle horses and herd dogs. Prey animals have an entirely different set of reactions than humans.

      • Also used to encounter large aggressive dogs when I had a paper route as a teenager, and was attacked on two occasions. Pepper spray saw them off on both occasions – with much less risk to others than a gun would have created.

        Granted, if the owner of either dog had been a pissed off meth-head I might have wished for something more effective than seasoning.

  6. Well… Get a hold of your dog. This is why dogs should be on leashes. I’m not going to judge that cop at all, that dog rushed him. She’d still be alive if she hadn’t let her dog rush him.

    I dont think it was a good idea to shoot with the woman in the background, but in that split second, I know I’m not gonna get hit by a homeless persons rabie infested out either. So split second decisions here, and keyboard warrior what ifs aside, would you take the risk of being bit by that thing? Don’t try to change the scenario either. the only thing you’re going to do differently is try to run, and that dog will catch you. 21 foot rule in effect.

    • Yeah, but still, he missed the dog by a mile and shot the person. There really is no excuse for that kind of behavior.

      • I love to see your marksmanship when a dog is rushing at you in that sort of situation. you hit every single bullet and center Mass on a moving Target? You must be a military elite… Or call of duty veteran…

        Then again, you claim that you would just allow yourself to be bit…

        Enjoy your rabies shots I hope that dog didn’t get your femoral artery. is that really a risk that you’re willing to take?

        • Well, seeing how the guy is a cop that the government endorses to carry firearms, mayyyyybe HE should be able to make that kind of shot in that kind of situation. You know. As if it was his job to handle situations like this.

        • @B.D.

          And he is a cop that is supposed to take such risks to serve and protect the public. So says their PR.

        • My marksmanship is excellent and rabies is a thing of the past in the United States. Two cases annually, 23 in the last decade, alot of which were from overseas exposure. Treatment is a single injection that insurance covers.

        • Lots of keyboard warrior commentary. That dog sprinted at him. do you think a homeless person’s insurance covered any shots? I’m just amazed at how many people would rather get bit, or risk the chance of being bit by a dog that is charging right at you. Amazing. He had less than 1 second to react. Watch the video.

      • Is it her dog? She’s homeless. Probably a hungry stray that follows her. Eats the scraps that she drops.

    • I’ve been barked at and rushed at by a bunch of dogs in my lifetime while I’ve been armed and I’ve never had to shoot one. How’s many dogs have you shot yourself that have ran around and barked at you?

    • DB
      “21 foot rule in effect.”

      So the dog had a knife tooo!

      Wow….who left the short bus unattended again DB got out!?

      • Do you understand the 21 foot rule? the entire purpose is that even if you’re able to get a shot off doesn’t mean they’re going to die instantly. It’s amusing to see how many people would rather get bit…

        • Dogs aren’t the cause of mass misery across the world, they deserve at least the chance to get a better home and a boohoo bite is a small price for it.

          All my dogs have been adopts.

        • A boo hoo bite? I think you need to look at some dog bites. Go ahead and Google it. maybe you’re confusing a sprinting Chihuahua, with the sprinting pitbull that we saw on the video.

        • Yes, I admit, I would rather get bit than shoot in the general direction of another human being who is not an imminent danger to me or someone else.

          That said, would I show more presence of mind than the unfortunate officer, were I in the same situation? I hope so, but I also hope I never have to find out.

  7. Ofc. Barney Fife (aka, The Riddler) : “BANG !!! BANG!!! BANG!!!! Get a Hold of your dog Ma’am! Ma’am are you okay!!! ” { citizen’s: brains on tarmac like spilled hamburger 🍔…}

  8. Once again the mighty dog shooter has vanquished the forces of evil.
    At least they didn’t drag out the “pit bull” description. Cops and media are as bad with dog descriptions as they are with guns. Intentionally so, I’m sure.

  9. It’s sad that cops practice spray and pray instead of good marksmanship.to protect and serve what a joke

    • Kids learn in FPS games to spray and pray. The good players take their time and use proper positioning. Dumbasses just spray their entire mag hoping to get that lucky head shot.

  10. Most of cops are dumb as a door knob, that’s a fact, if someone disagrees, he must be too. Put that together with fact that many are scared shitlesly of even a small dog and you get idiots pulling a gun ut every time they see a dog nearby, shooting at it the same moment they think it’s going their way. This one looks like a total tool, not only does he shoot the doog immediately, not even trying to kick it or something, he shoots in the same direction and elevation the woman is laying, down into a concrete sidewalk. Complete idiot…
    Protect and serve? More like piss your pants and shoot. No regard for anyone else’s safety but their own. Oh, the officer felt threatened because the guy inside the house had a gun in his hand, to hell with fact that it was the home owner awaken by the idiot ringing his door bell in middle of night.
    Anyone seen that video where in Utah I think cops were seraching for a burglary suspect and some kids called that there’s a black dude hiding in their garage? The cops going inside the house and approaching the garage door almost killed the family Chihuahua after it came thru the pet door, and probably had to change their pants afterwards too.

  11. I hate to say to some of you folks who are Pro-Statist…But, even some of my own relatives who had been involved with the Law Enforcement field have stated things have gone overboard…Stating with the militant police commando type training now presented to new recruits…And the mentality that the U.S. Constitutional-Bill of Rights is just a public brochure…..

    • LStating with the militant police commando type training now presented to new recruits…“

      That’s a total internet myth. Trust me, if police were receiving “military commando training”, first of all, their accuracy would be far, far better then what’s on display here. Also, they’d be in far better shape, far less likely to pull the trigger when it wasn’t warranted, and even less likely to panic. They’d also likely have greater respect for the constitution.

      • I’ll say it. That cop is a moron. He’s so scared of a 40lb barking dog he starts blasting away and kills someone. Just kick the damn dog if you have to.

        • Oh I agree. See my other comments. I’m just saying that this kind of stuff isn’t because of “military grade” training, it’s due to poor training and probably because much of today’s youth is raised without dogs, due to many of them having been brought up in ultra HOA suburbs and pristine allergy terrified parents.

    • You mean like our lawmakers…that take an oath to uphold the Constitution? INCLUDING the 2nd?
      And then look for workarounds to ban guns?
      And….
      Lots of cops at every level are libs/dems and hate guns…just like in the rest of society…they have their issued gun only because it mandated…they shoot only when they have to qualify and know little or nothing about guns except what they learn in the academy
      believe me…I worked/work with them on a daily basis…

  12. Christ. What the hell are they teaching these officers in the police academy?

    First observation: If you’re whipping out your gat in response to a 40 lb. “lab mix,” then you need to get the hell out of the first response business. Period. If you can’t handle a dog of that size, you have no business being in policing, fire fighting, EMS, whatever. You’re simply not capable of handling the first-response environment, and you should go back to your desk job. I’ve had to deal with dogs over four times that weight/size in the middle of the night, making entry to a house where the owner was medically incapacitated, and I was without a gun (because EMT’s here don’t carry guns). The worst that happened to me is that I was covered with Rottweiler slobber. I’ve had to deal with pits, GSD’s, Pyr’s and lots of small yappers. Never was in a situation where I would have pulled a gun. I’ve had to deal with getting whipped by a pit’s tail (that hurts!) and dogs leaning on my legs, dogs looking over my shoulder, dogs giving me a wet willie in my ear – but in no case would I ever have thought about whipping out a gun to start killing a dog.

    Dealing with a dog just isn’t that difficult. It just isn’t. Neither is dealing with a horse, a cow, etc. I’ve dealt with those too on EMS calls. Out of all of them, horses are, IMO, the animal I worry about most. Dogs are way down on the list of things that worry me on a EMS call.

    Second observation: Were I being rushed by an aggressive dog (let’s assume it were an actually aggressive dog, and then a dog that poses more threat than a large housecat), I’d be waiting until the dog is on top of me, so I’m firing downwards, not at such a shallow angle where the bullet is going to carry a long ways just above the ground – and at contact or near-contact ranges, I can’t miss. Plus, it is then more obvious on the camera that the dog was on top of me and I had an actual threat to my safety when there is a review hearing..

    Last issue: “Eight hours of canine training?” From whom? Other clowns who don’t know how to deal with a dog?

    What a waste.

      • The situation was a dog was rushing at him.

        A homeless person’s dog.

        did that dog look like it was just going to run up and jump and say hello? Nope.

        • You just have the answer for everything…must suck to be you, having all the insight and the hindsight in the world…

          Tell us, tell us all, what’s going to happen in the 2020 election, I have a few bets I’d like to lay down…

          Honestly, if you don’t have anything worthwhile to add, just STFU…

        • Lol.

          Thank you for acknowledging that I’m obviously right about situation, or at the very least, you have nothing else to contest my Outlook. Loser.

        • I’ve been rushed faster by bigger, and they did nothing more than sniff and wag.

          How a dog approaches you is contingent on your body language. If you act like you’re not supposed to be there and you’re afraid of the dog, the dog often figures there’s a reason to be aggressive. As soon as that cop’s vocal tone changed, he screwed up. As soon as he changed his posture, he confirmed to the dog that he was a problem for the dog to rush.

          When I open someone’s front door in the middle of the night, and there’s a large, potentially aggressive dog right inside the door, how do I not get bit?

          Answer: I don’t act like that cop. Simple. There’s no “repekt mah authoratah!” coming off of me. There’s the dog, and there’s me. I don’t want to hurt the dog, and the dog returns the favor. I’m not excited, and the dog sees no reason to get excited or fearful. In dogs, fear begets fear.

          I talk to the dog in a calm voice, I’m never sneaky in my movements, and I have what one TV dog trainer like to call “calm, assertive posture.” That’s it. This isn’t rocket science.

          Same deal with how I deal with loose horses and an injured rider that’s on the ground. I walk in like I’m supposed to be there, calm and not trying to play “keep away.” I calmly walk up to the horse, take hold of the bridal or the reins, walk to the horse over to where I can tie them up, and then get on with my business. Never been kicked, no horse has ever tried to kick me. I’ve had a horse lick the back of my head while I’ve been attending their owner/rider (and that’s a little yucky), but I’ve never had anything else out of a horse. And let me tell you – from only a few years of EMS work, horses are deadly. Every year, I’ve been on at least two calls with major injuries from a horse accident, and one death by trampling. Horses can kill your ass dead, right there, right now.

          I’ve had to deal with loose cattle and horse on roadways in four different states here in the west. Never had a problem, not even with bulls, got them put back inside a fence with no excitement or drama, alone.

          Handling animals is just not that difficult. It really isn’t.

          You have to start by being calm, using a calm, even tone of voice, assert control in low-key manner. That, right there, seems to eliminate a whole lot of people currently in law enforcement. I keep seeing cops talking about dogs as tho they’re some hell demons, bent on biting cops.

          Well, how is it I’m able to enter a dog’s house in the middle of the night, when their owner isn’t at the door to restrain them, and I don’t get bit? How is it that the other EMS people are able to do the same thing – and firefighters as well? We never took any eight hours of dog training – and no one offered it, either.

    • Thanks to the ‘training’ I won’t be surprised when they release the body cam footage and we hear the officer screaming, “Stop resisting!” in his best Command Voice.

    • “What the hell are they teaching these officers in the police academy?”

      They are being taught that the only important thing is they go home safe after their shift, of course…

    • Yep, move to the side as you back up, because a wall makes a better backstop than a person. Then assess before firing, this wasn’t a raid on a drug house with a known violent felon inside.

    • Well put. This is what I was trying to say. Having dealt with all kinds of animals with my hands to include gators, dogs are way down on the fear list. As you said, a wild horse is much higher. Simply because they kick when startled. I can handle being bit. A horse kick is whole different story.

    • I have completed the POTS canine training course. “Draw and fire”, much less “draw and miss”, was not my takeaway.
      By the way, want proof that the dog wasn’t dangerous? He never shot the dog and the dog never bit him.

    • The only time I’ve ever killed a dog was an almost straight down shot on a GS that was part of a pack of ‘pet’ dogs let run loose for the day. I hated doing it but I couldn’t get into a wrestling match with the whole pack.

      Your comment about horses brings back memories. Horses are a fairly dumb animal. Have you ever been stepped on by a horse? Hurts. Getting bit also hurts.

      • Been stepped on – not intentionally and the horse was “sorry” about it. The horse knew she had stepped on me, and showed real concern why I was hopping around.

        Never been bit – came close once, and I flicked the horse’s nose as a “don’t you do that” and then we got on fine.

        Worst deal I’ve ever had with horses is when cleaning their hooves, they like to use a person as a footstool. A quarter horse is heavy enough to really surprise you, but draft horses are in a league all their own. I once picked up a Belgian mare’s foot to clean it – and she was so happy to have the weight off that foot, she put it all on my back. I was nearly flattened into the ground… draft horses are damn heavy beasts. But very good natured. Never, ever met an ill-tempered draft horse. They’re some of the most even-tempered, good-natured creatures on this earth.

        Thoroughbreds? Now that’s a different story.

    • I’d take a cow or horse any day over a dog charging at me. I’ve been bit by a “friendly” rescue pit bull mix. I was walking down the middle of a residential street. It shoved my leg with its shoulder, (I didn’t run, just walked, ignoring it), then it bit my achilles tendon. It bit a 12yr old girl walking to the bus stop, also. I wouldn’t let my dog jump/bite anyone anymore than I would let my kids do that. No excuse for a dog to do that.

  13. Once again, we see the end result of too little training, the use of deadly force is a, and should be the last resort, but instead, it’s the first reaction…pepper spray to the dog would’ve been more than sufficient, but instead, someone, an innocent, is now dead…

    IF you can’t handle putting yourself in harms way, perhaps it’s time for a career change…

    • not all cops have pepper spray, baton, taser… but I get where you are coming from…

      • They choose what to carry. Some cops don’t like carrying a bunch of stuff, they stick to the essential stuff to kill and arrest.

        • @WI Patriot

          You can choose to carry the old school baton or the collapsible. You don’t have to always carry mace or pepper spray. There are some choices as to how you setup your stuff. Obviously there are regulations and some places have more than others.

    • Bingo!

      K9 noses are more sensitive than humans.

      I used a Fox fogger on a huge Sheppard once that started guarding it’s territory in a aggressive manner. Not the dogs fault for being a dog of course, but it’s claimed territory was a public road.

      One blast to the head area and the dog ran, tail tucked, squalling.

      Takes the fight right out of them.

  14. i put this incident in the lap of the people training the cop. he should have been weeded out long before the badge got pined on him. the fact that the weapon was pulled long before he was in the danger zone. where was his stick? no pepper spray? was his attitude the reason the dog charged? dogs are not just a stupid dog, they read people very much better than people read dogs. when a dog sees a human in a attack mode he can see that long before the human will. even a mutt of no specific breed has the ability to see a human in a attack mode stance. BAD SHOOT, FUTURE PARKING COP.

  15. If this happened to a none LEO, say maybe ccl holder you can bet his name would be
    released pronto. As it should be and the cop’s should be no different.

  16. This is why I don’t find comfort in the “Officer safety is our number one priority” credo.

  17. if you want something shot.. call a cop.
    Dogs, kids, innocent bystanders, wrong person on the scene, jaywalker, another cop.. the only tool in their box is the gun, and everything needs to be shot. Even if you follow directions in Simon says, they’ll shoot you. then they’ll plant drugs on you or just all agree that “he made a movement toward his waist”

    sorry “good cops”, you are outnumbered by the cowards, the roid rangers, the barney fifes and the “respect muh authoratay” cops.

    there aren’t a “few bad apples”… there are just a few good cops. you’re going to have to buy a lot more shoes for a homeless vet and play a lot more basketball with the kids to try to cover up that this isn’t so systematic and prevalent.

    I don’t like cops. I don’t interact with cops. I don’t call the cops EVEN if I see someone doing something illegal. Because once cops show up for any reason, the odds of getting shot increases dramatically, even if I’m just the one reporting the crime.

    oh and the garlic festival perp shot himself in the mouth, contrary to the ‘official’ report that three hero cops shot him.

    this is why there’s so much more cop hate. consistently getting caught lying and covering up.

  18. U.S. Cops are the worst trained Cops in the Industrialized world. Even a complete Moron knows you do not open fire on a dog if the owner is in the line of fire.

  19. Jackboot will be named Officer of the Year, and TTAG’s copsucking brigade will crap their pants in enthusiastic agreement.

  20. Good old Texas doing what they do best. Here I am thinking it was a great idea to move there. King of the Hill and NRA members made me think it was a great place.

    • Key takeaways:
      1)Arlen is fictional
      2)anytime somebody from outside of Arlen, be it NY, Dallas, Houston, California or OK, was depicted they were a complete jackass

    • Judging by your other posts you’d probably move there an vote democrat anyway so I think Texans are perfectly happy with you staying where you’re at.

      • I would vote for people like Ron Paul.

        Remember, not everyone that calls themselves a Republican is, there are Democrats like Trump that claim to be a Republican. It’s a two party system where there is extreme variation within both parties. Just because you have a R doesn’t mean you are a conservative or a Libertarian type.

        Party loyalists are like NRA loyalists. You saw what happened there…

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ozZN8n9psY

  21. What a jagoff…carry some pepper gel you puzzy! He’ll get away with murder😫

    • These days we can’t carry guns nor own dogs. If we have those two things we increase our chances of getting killed by law enforcement; no government worker will give a shit afterwards. If you answer the door with a gun and a dog you put yourself in extreme risk if it’s a cop not a gangster. Damn if you do, damned if you don’t.

  23. If cops take so many hours of dog training why don’t they understand a false charge or posturing? Why don’t they use their taser over their firearm?

    As a kid in a city, I never been bitten by an aggressive dog. Usually they run at you barking then stop and bark some more. If you act weak or scared they will try to bite you. Even on a skateboard the dog wouldn’t bite me, they would bite at the skateboard and chase me. I owned a pit bull before; I never had any issues with it even though it was untrained. When I see unleashed dogs walking toward me I do get concerned but I simply watch their approach, prepare to strike the dog hard and scream loudly to scare him off or I move away from their approach to give them space so I don’t get their attention.

    Now if there is pack a dogs, I can see them going crazy with pack mentality and try to take down a human. Or wild starving dogs can attack weak looking people, but that kind of dog is usually in a third world like nation. Most American dogs don’t attack grown men, if they attack it’s usually little kids or little animals.

    Tucking your arm behind you and spinning can deflect a lot of attacks because dogs tend to try to bite the arm if they can’t reach the neck. If a dog goes for the leg you can obviously straight kick him in the face or chest and tase him, which is a smarter thing to do so you don’t shoot yourself. Sometimes the dry stun is enough to scare the dog.

    Problem these days is law enforcement is trained to shoot dogs and they are allowed to because dogs are considered property if they don’t belong to the government. This allows trigger happy cops to finally shoot something on duty without consequence. Dogs that the government own are considered cops, thus if you attack that cop/dog you will be treated much differently than if you let the dog rip you a part. You can’t attack a K-9 officer like a cop can attack your family member that is considered a cheap piece of property.

    It’s never a good idea to fire a gun in heavily populated areas or when people are in the line of fire, but that doesn’t matter to the cop or gangster. Cops don’t really get in trouble for endangering the public. Most policies are setup for officer safety over public safety. You just have to stay out of the way of gangsters and cops. If you can’t dodge bullets, that is your fault for being incompetent.

  25. Why is it that every dog in the world is out to bite and attack a If they kill my dog to officer but there dogs are saints? If they shoot my dogs to Damm bad, if I shoot one of theirs it is murder. Both Dogs squat to Sh*t but theres do not stink.

  26. *Because, remember the answer is ALWAYS racism, never incompetence or mistakes. Was it a dog of color?

  27. I read a statistic that in a recent year, police in Germany fired a total of about 85 shots in an entire year. This included warning shots which their policy allows. Multiply by 4 for a USA equivalent since our population is roughly 4x theirs.
    Certainly they have criminals, immigration problems, drugs, and even dangerous dogs ( I have a fear of German shepherds from a bad childhood experience).
    While the comparison is somewhat apples to oranges, there must be something in how they do things compared to how we do things. For all the rounds expended, our police do not appear to be particularly effective. The comments on this site certainly support that conclusion. Apologies to Barney Fife.

    https://www.steynonline.com/6524/cigars-but-not-close

  29. If the woman had a home and was lying on her concrete patio in her backyard, visible to neighbors. They might have called for a welfare check and her dog might have been guarding her as family dogs do (often because that’s one thing dog owners want them for). The officer would have been confronted the same situation.

    Firing to protect himself would still be the wrong decision. Gun safety rules include being sure of your target and that there’s no chance your bullet will strike anyone else. TTAG readers all know this, it’s engraved on our skulls. We can’t pretend to be perfect in our decision making so this incorrect/ unwanted decision must be expected.

    Do not let politicians convince us that they can outlaw bad decisions and include prescribed punishments for them. Personal liberty is scary that way- we can’t do as we please but society (not government) regulates our actions in various ways. There’s plenty of room inside those rules for personal liberty. We have to also accept that random chance leads to tragic incidents like this one. And we do not accept that government is the ultimate controller, judge, jury and sentencing authority. (like they do in some other countries)

    This news story is just another warning, not the basis for getting politics or ideologies into the mix. BE CAREFUL. Also be grateful that fewer than 1 in 300 people face a greater chance of making such mistakes because they are law enforcement officers on duty all over the country at all hours, year after year. Just by becoming a cop: you are 300 times more likely to be involved in a decision making situation like this. Dispatch isn’t sending us into such situations every day like they do their patrol officers.

  31. That cop needs to do some prison time for manslaughter. He gunned down an innocent woman.

  32. Know your target and what lies beyond.

    But if your target is a dog, and there’s a bum behind it, you’re golden.

  33. He planted a round in the chest of a defenseless woman on the ground, while trying to shoot a dog for no reason.

    If you or I did that, we’d spend the rest of our lives in prison. He needs to be criminally charged and put behind bars for at least a decade.

  34. Lack of training….I am sorry but when you carry a firearm with or without a badge you have guidelines that cannot be crossed. The firearm safety rules apply to those with badges and 2A folks…. this Officer needs to be held accountable just as anyone else would be…. incompetence is the worst kind of corruption..

  35. So apparently this officer slept through the first and most important part of his “firearms training,” Cooper’s four rules of gun safety, as he basically broke 75% of them (he gets the benefit of the doubt on #1). Of course this assumes that they did cover the rules in the training, but you know what they say about “assuming.”

    Also, if he was a rookie, only being on streets for one month, where was his FTO? How was a single month experienced cop allowed out on his own? Does Arlington PD not have any other cops with more than a year of service on their roster that could be assigned to show a rookie the ropes? Can you say lawsuit?

  37. Yawn…dog attacked cop, cop shot dog. It was a good (legal) shoot no matter how many armchairs your coach.

    • Why are cops the only ones you need to continually shoot dogs???

      The rest of us just pet them.

      Your training sucks. You suck.

      You want to save a life or a dog? See NOTHING, Say NOTHING!

    • And somehow, the rest of us first responders are able to deal with dogs without shooting them.

        • I’m not a LEO, you silly twat. I’m a volunteer firefighter, EMT. I don’t even get paid for responding to 911 calls.

          You are afflicted with the insufferable hubris of cops – that they’re the only ‘first responders.’ Got a news flash, for you: You’re not.

    • You’d sound infinitely more intelligible without your fave govt terrorist faggtot dildo shoved in your mouth, while replying. xD

  38. There are things that could be done to reign in questionable behavior by police and other public officials.
    1. Eliminate both absolute and qualified immunity for ALL public officials. If public officials (yes, this includes police officers and their administrators, firefighters, prosecutors, court officials and all other public servants) knew that they could be sued personally (and possibly lose everything they own), they would tend to behave themselves. Require all public officials to purchase and maintain “malpractice insurance” as a condition of employment. Insurance companies would be unwilling to “pay out” for a “questionable situation”. Insurance companies would be more efficient in “weeding out” the “bad apples” as not doing so would affect their “bottom line”.
    2. Any awards to the citizenry as a result of official misconduct “under color of authority” should be paid out of their respective pension funds. This one move would do much to curtail bad behavior by any public official.
    3. Establish and enforce an video audit trail whenever there is interaction by any public official with the public. In the case of police and firefighters, no video audit trail would mean the inadmissibility of evidence as well as censure and immediate dismissal with loss of pension for failure to assure that this video audit trail is present. Equipment malfunction would not be a valid excuse. A video audit trail works both ways and would also do much to eliminate the possibility of frivolous lawsuits by the public against public officials as well as assure that public officials behave themselves. This is especially true in police interrogation rooms where police-coerced false confessions occur with alarming frequency.
    4. Prosecutors should be subordinate to the grand jury. Grand juries should be able to indict without needing the prosecutor’s permission. Of course, there would be NO absolute or qualified immunity for prosecutors or grand jurors.
    Police agencies should not be allowed to investigate themselves. Outside, disinterested agencies should do the investigating.
    5. Civilian police review boards should be mandatory-they should exclude anyone who has a police background or relatives of police from serving. Civilian police review boards should be able to bring up charges against corrupt public officials and officers as well.
    These changes would put the public on an equal footing with our leaders (who are actually supposed to be subordinate to us citizens).
    There have been many cases where people who have been legally recording police (mis)behavior have been harassed by police, their equipment damaged or destroyed, and charges brought against them. Severe punishment should be meted out to those public officials who interfere with lawful recording by citizens.
    So-called “law enforcement” has become out-of-control…and an entity unto themselves, where they have become judge, jury and executioner.

  39. He had NO firearm training. HE was backing up and shooting as he backed up. Try that sometime.
    It was murder. He should never have been on the street.

    It’s like a no knock raid. Which I never understood why the SC said it is okay.
    All the cops have to do instead of a no knock raid is wait and pick them up somewhere else. No wonder some of us get concerned when a cop approaches.

  40. I would wish that everything and everyone that this walking sack of filth loves is torn away from him screaming and the rest of his life spent in agonizing, hopeless pain in both body and mind. This worthless fool is the sort that would dump a mag int a crowd of school children to address the personal threat to HIMSELF standing among them.
    And before any of my brethren here go off on some sycophantic, LEO fanboy automatic defense of this mouth breathing waste of donor organs, keep this in mind: If YOU were HE in that situation you would be in prison farting-out your cellmate’s body fluids for no less than the next decade or two. And afterwards you may as well forget about ever even looking at a weapon for self defense again. And it is the LEO and the politician who are the ones entrusted with guarding our lives, freedom and safety of our society. Their punishments for the neglect, dereliction and wanton disregard for the rights and safety of the public that they are sworn to serve should be dramatically more serve than it is for the “common” citizen. If they (as they actually do in many cases) view themselves and their positions as having more value than the citizenry they “protect” then they are only as much a “protector”, or “servant” as the farmer is to his livestock.! Personally I get sick when I here about new and harsher laws for “cop killer”. Twisted how that offends the state more so than when that same perpetrator rapes the child which led to the killing of the co afterwards. And as contrast to all the, aforementioned, LEO fanboys, bare in mind that there are good men imprisoned (with at least one on trial for his life) because they failed to follow the erroneously authored “rules of engagement” in a bloody war zone. And the two border patrol agents who, about 15 years ago, were sent to PRISON for firing on a known drug smuggler while in the actual commission of the crime. So, this COWARD shot in the direction of a HUMAN in the attempt of saving his chicken ass from a dog..!?!?!?!?!… He could had just as easily stepped to the side and shot at the dog with the wall as a backstop to his left, or the trees to his right. But if even a single one of you defend shooting in the direction of a person in the attempt to kill a dog that threatens, perhaps. only safety and not life, but surly endangering the life of the HUMAN beyond your intended target, you are either a fool who should never be armed yourself, or love-sick for law enforcement to such a degree that had the incident involved a FLAMETHROWER at kindergarten you would still defend the fool. Birds of a feather……..

  41. There are times in the real world (as opposed to a range) when you simply can’t know what is obscured behind your target and have to shoot anyway. There was a case (Baltimore?) where an officer ended up killing a bystander because she was standing behind a door while her son attacked with a machete or something.

    This was not one of those situations. Maybe the dog would need to be shot. But it didn’t need to be shot at that moment, at that range, at that angle to endanger a woman laying on the ground. I am fine with shooting dogs before they bite you but not when it kills someone. I’ll take a bite to the leg if it means I can do a contact shot to the dog instead of wasting some random lady.

  42. That cop needs to go to jail. Even law enforcement is taught to be aware of their background. He could have easily got his pepper spray out.

  43. #ShouldHaveBeenDGU: charge, try, convict, sentence the motherfucker with capital punishment. Too bad TX doesn’t have the Utah Option.

    FUCK negligent homicide, charge the govt terrorist faggot with SECOND DEGREE MURDER. There’s ZERO excuse: just because you don a cunty past due Halloween cosplay costume, you’re NOT immune from the reality of “oops, tried to kill your dog, but murdered you instead” as a dipshit TRAINED to observe what’s BEHIND the target, yet chose to negligently fire in the same direction.

    Lethal injection is too expensive a waste of stolen wealth of citizenry to pay for the nonsense. Invoke the Utah option, and let his ‘estate’ pay for it. ALL of it: from processing, trial, conviction, to caging, waiting on death row, to the range.

  44. Wow, this comment section is toxic even by TTAG “cop shooting story” standards… People really do love animals more than people. Not judging anybody, I get it.

    But what I want to know is how you’re with the PD for 7 years and still a “rookie”. Anybody got insight on that?

    • I don’t love animals more than people.

      I see how LEO’s respond to handling animals as some of the ultimate manifestations of law enforcement incompetence. In situation after situation across the country, we see LEO’s shooting dogs (and other animals) where, if they had used even a modicum of intelligence (ie, that not every problem was a nail awaiting the hammer of law enforcement), they would not be in the news.

      But somewhere, mixed in with the “magazine dumps” in their modern training has come a doctrine of “shoot as the first response” to dogs (and other animals on the loose). Here, because the cop ignored the basic rules of firearm training and safety, he allowed his training on dogs to cause the death of a woman who posed no threat to the officer – while allowing the dog to live.

      At some point, the taxpayers have a right to ask for not only a cop’s badge, but the badges and jobs of the people who trained him. This is just such a case – the department claims that he had eight hours of training in how to deal with dogs. What did they teach in those eight hours?

  45. 20 years ago, while running for public office, I knocked on 2,000 doors over a summer and early fall. The county is the size of Rhode Island with 28,000 people. That equals very rural and quite a few dogs. Once was charged by two three legged dogs at once. Probably could have out run them but I pulled out my first line defensive weapon, dog biscuits. Worked as intended.

      • @BD,

        I think you have mistaken me for someone else. It was just a slightly humorous incident from a number of years ago. Now, at 71 and in reasonable health, a substantial walking stick has been sufficient. The occasional dog on my route these days is usually dissuaded by an aggressive stance and firm command. Usually nothing larger than a German Shepherd though, so there is that advantage.

  47. It is plain to see here that in order to prevent such terrible misfortunes, we need to have more guns on our pets and in the hands of good citizens. I’m sure that rookie cop would of thought twice if Fido had the ability to defend himself.

  48. C’mon TTAG. These comments have gone in the crapper. Hire some mods to clean this nonsense up.

  49. I agree with many here that dangerous dog breeds have no place in our society. BUT, just imagine if it was a dangerous PERSON with a GUN and there were innocent kids behind the criminal!! What should the cop do, defend himself and shoot at the criminal and the kids? NO! He took this dangerous job, not just to protect HIMSELF but the lives of innocent people. So his first obligation shouldn’t necessarily be to himself, but to protect the innocent. Sometimes that gets you hurt. What’s the worst the dog will do? Bite his leg and then shoot him at close range where he could have been much more accurate anyway? Then he could have sued the owner for the dog biting him. I’m guessing the dog isn’t going to sue the cop for killing its owner, but I hope the family does.

  51. This is what bugs me about recycling stories. In less then a minute I found the officer’s name and what happened in the end.

    “ An Arlington police officer who fatally shot a woman during an August welfare check resigned Friday, police said.

    Officer Ravi Singh had not previously been identified by Arlington police before he delivered his resignation Friday, three months after the fatal shooting of 30-year-old Margarita “Maggie” Victoria Brooks.”
    “ Singh’s resignation effectively ends the department’s investigation into his conduct, police said. The department also concluded its criminal investigation into the shooting and submitted its findings to the Tarrant County district attorney’s office to be presented before a grand jury.

    Before his resignation, Singh had been working in an assignment where he didn’t have contact with the public, a police spokesman said in October.”

    https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2019/11/01/arlington-officer-who-fatally-shot-woman-during-august-welfare-check-resigns-police-say/

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