Yvonne Rosado was dancing with her dog, Spike, when she heard something outside her New York apartment.
And opened the door.
When she looked past the threshold, her dog walked out wagging its tail onto the landing.
That, made NYPD officer Ruben Cuesta ‘fear for his life.’
So, he shot Spike right in the head.
Deliberately.
When he looked up at officer Cuesta, the last thing the dog saw was the flash of the barrel of the gun that shot him.
Police still aren’t offering a reason as to why Cuesta shot Spike on February 13th nor have they offered an apology.
They also left Rosado with the $265 cremation bill.
“I shouldn’t have to pay to get the ashes back,” said the devastated Rosado, “He shouldn’t be dead to begin with.”
Rosado later told a [__news source__](http://m.nydailynews.com/new-york/bronx/nypd-shoots-kills-bronx-family-beloved-dog-graphic-article-1.2576863), “the officer just reacted badly. I was screaming, ‘He’s friendly! He’s friendly!’ But he still did that to my dog.”Surveillance video showed the dog walk outside while sniffing the ground and wagging its before Officer Cuesta shot him.
Rosado rushed outside along with her neighbor, Serena Santiagoand and her 16-year-old daughter, and she cradled Spike’s body after his life was snuffed out by Cuesta.
“What if he had missed the dog and shot my daughter,” asked Santiago.
“She’s traumatized by the whole thing.”
Cuesta then began creeping down the stair well, but later peaks up out of the staircase when one female walked down shouting and took a swing at him.
Three NYPD officers storm the stairwell then tackle the woman as the video ends.
Officer Cuesta wasn’t even called to Rosado’s residence.
He was actually investigating a domestic violence call at another apartment unit.
**This isn’t even the first time NYPD cops killed one of Rosado’s pets.**
*Yvonne Rosado With Spike From New York Daily News*
She told [__New York Daily News__](http://m.nydailynews.com/new-york/bronx/nypd-shoots-kills-bronx-family-beloved-dog-graphic-article-1.2576863) that NYPD killed her cat pet cat sometime around 2010 when they broke its neck during a search at another apartment that wasn’t hers.
As is often the case when cops abuse someone, Cuesta played the victim and asked to be taken to the hospital because his ears were ringing.
NYPD policy stated that their cops can shoot at animals “only to defend themselves or others from threat of physical injury, or death or as a last resort to stop an animal attack.”
It’s a rare case when a Law Enforcement Officer gets criminally charged for shooting a pet.
One such case in Virginia happened to be a dog shot by an off-duty cop, in a [__story we reported about__](http://photographyisnotacrime.com/2016/03/24/virginia-trooper-charged-killing-dog-off-duty-suspended-without-pay/) this week, when the State Police turned him into a municipal department after they issued a cash reward for the suspect.
http://photographyisnotacrime.com/2016/03/24/virginia-trooper-charged-killing-dog-off-duty-suspended-without-pay/
Tiffanie Hupp’s story about her chained dog, which was wagging its tail when an officer brandished his gun on her family pet in a story PINAC News took viral, ultimately making international headlines.
Hupp was later charged with obstruction of an officer for standing between the officer and her dog.
A jury acquitted Hupp with her sole witness being a video clip of the incident.
http://photographyisnotacrime.com/2016/03/07/west-virginia-woman-acquitted-for-stepping-between-dog-and-cop-who-wanted-to-kill-it/
We also broke the story about [__Eddie Harris__](http://photographyisnotacrime.com/2014/12/13/michigan-cops-kill-dog-wrong-address-warrantless-home-entry/) who became a victim of a dog shooting by police when he heard someone open his door, officer Matt Peters, who didn’t have a warrant.
When his dog, Kane, did what dogs do and came down to investigate who was at the door, wagging his tail, officer Matt Peters shot him with Harris standing just feet away from the bottom of the stair well where the dog was shot.
His story is similar to Rosado’s.
“I was walking down the stairs, and within seconds he shot my dog dead right in front of me.”
Even though Matt Peters entered Harris’ residence without a warrant, his own department [__found that he acted within their policy.__](http://www.mlive.com/news/jackson/index.ssf/2015/02/officer_involved_in_fatal_dog.html)
http://photographyisnotacrime.com/2014/12/13/michigan-cops-kill-dog-wrong-address-warrantless-home-entry/
Let that sink in for a moment.
We expect the same for this case.
Not only will Cuesta and the NYPD likely deny all responsibility or suffer consequences resulting from their self-investigation, they’ll also leverage their huge budget to oppose the civil complaint she filed notice of a few days after Spike’s death.
And they’ll probably never apologize like Florida cops who similarly murdered a family pet on its own doorstep for no reason, making international headlines in a PINAC Exclusive breaking news and viral video report.
http://photographyisnotacrime.com/2015/10/20/florida-cops-murder-pet-dog-3-feet-from-terrified-homeowners/
According to NYPD’s firearm discharge report, cops shot and killed 18 family pets, one fewer than the 19 for 2013.
For 2011 , 36 pets were killed by NYPD.
Austin dog activist Julian Reyes told PINAC News that the numbers are way higher than that. Because cops don’t count their bullets (something he wants after Austin police shot his dog), those statistics might not be fully accurate.
[__PuppycideDB__](http://puppycidedb.com/) is the only known database that uses news reports to track dog deaths, which is a similar technique to that used by Washington Post and The Guardian to track citizen deaths by police officers.
The ASPCA states they receive regular [__reports of cops shooting dogs__](http://www.aspca.org/about-us/aspca-policy-and-position-statements/position-statements-law-enforcement-response). Their review of public records indicates that %50 or more of officer-involved shootings involve a police officer shooting a dog, and that even though police policy dictates police aren’t supposed use deadly force unless it involves an ”imminent threat” to protect themselves or others from the dog, that in most cases the dog isn’t even a threat.
If past statistics are any indication of future statistics, police will continue shooting dogs nation-wide, because the system enables it.
All they have to say is they “feared for their lives” even when they fear something as silly as a dog is wagging its tail at them.
Fear is their defense, every time.
Police aren’t just shooting dogs like they’re target practice, they are getting away with murdering people, too, because they know they can utter the magic phrase “I feared for my life.”
*Voilà!*
They get their job back.
No criminal charges.
No internal disciplinary actions.
It’s not just you and your dog at risk.
In June of 2015, an Ohio [__cop shot a 4-year-old girl__](http://photographyisnotacrime.com/2015/06/19/ohio-cop-shoots-4-year-old-girl-while-trying-to-shoot-family-dog/) when shot at a dog and missed.
But nobody will be surprised after to learn the NYPD Internal Affairs division will investigate their fellow officers, and shockingly will probably not find wrongdoing.
http://photographyisnotacrime.com/2015/06/19/ohio-cop-shoots-4-year-old-girl-while-trying-to-shoot-family-dog/
