An Idaho cop responding to a complaint of a barking dogs ended up shooting one of the dogs after it charged towards him Sunday afternoon.
The owner of the dog, Christina Logan, said her dog Rebel, which appears to be a Labrador retriever, was only trying to greet the officer when it ran out the door and towards the officer.
The Nampa Police Department, however, claim the dog was “aggressively attacking” the officer when he shot it, causing it to take off running.
The cop who Logan identified as Thomas Gearrey then started blaming her, according to the body cam video released by Nampa police on Monday.
“Why are you letting your dogs attack me?!” he yells at her after shooting Rebel.
Although Logan claimed in her Facebook post that Rebel was not attacking the cop, she acknowledges in the video the dog attacked the cop after he keeps demanding to know why she did not control her dog.
“I don’t understand why he did that, he usually doesn’t attack people like that,” she says.
The video does not prove the dog attacked the officer nor does it disprove it. Rebel survived the shooting and Logan is now raising money for its medical bills.
Nampa police stated the following on Facebook when releasing the video:
We want to address the incident from yesterday with the dog being shot. Below you will be able to view the bodycam video from the officer who was involved. The edit was for language, to avoid social platform restrictions. Bear in mind, our officer is wearing the camera on his chest and it’s designed to capture contacts with people so the view is angled straight ahead, not down where the dog was. We have provided the entire unedited video to local media outlets, with the understanding that they are covering the story, which we welcome. Also understand that transparency takes time. We work in conjunction with the Mayor’s Office and Nampa City Public Information Office when incidents of note occur. NPD officers receive ongoing training multiple times each year on use of force issues. In 2018 we handled approximately 71,000 calls for service and over 75,000 in 2019. Year to date count is 13,039 calls for service. Clearly, incidents like this are not a common occurrence in our city or for our agency.
Finally, we stand by our officer and his actions to defend himself.
Logan stated the following on Facebook where she posted her Go Fund Me link which has raised more than $4,700 at this time.
Imagine nice relaxing Sunday afternoon. Kids are in and out the back yard playing, dogs are playing. Everyone’s having a good day. You finally get everyone inside and sit down to watch some star wars and your doorbell goes off. Your dogs and kids are excited, everyone runs to the door.
As you try to open the door one of the dogs get out and you realize it’s a cop outside. Your dog jumps up to say hi and the cop pulls out a gun right in front of your kids and door and shoots your dog. Then proceeds to yell at you as your kids are now crying and your dog takes off down the road bleeding.
Unfortunately that was my Sunday. The dogs were outback barking because there are dogs in a kennel by the fence. A neighbor called and reported the dogs barking.
After the cop discharged his firearm in the small space. My dog Rebel took off running. Ashley and another friend took off after rebel and we’re able to track him down by the blood trail. Some neighbors were kind enough to help with providing more towels and getting him into the car to go to the vet.
During the time that Ashley and our friend where looking for Rebel, officer Gearrey with Nampa Police Department proceeded to yell at me asking where my dog went while he searched for the bullet after it ricocheted off my entrance concrete and I tried to calm the kiddos down who had just seen Officer Gearrey shoot our dog.
He is currently in an oxygen box at All Valley Animal Care Center and bandaged up with hemorrhaging in the lung where he was shot and while he is stable, it’s not 100% that he will be ok. The full damage is not fully known yet. But the bullet wound did go through a lung and his sternum. His respiratory levels are a bit too high, and he has lost ALOT of blood.
Update- he is moderately stable at the moment but heavily sedated. He has tubes going in and out of him now to remove the air that is getting out of his lungs into his chest cavity and have been removing the blood that’s getting into the lungs.
UPDATE- he’s starting to better. Starting to look more like he is going to be ok after a while
While I do understand that that was a lot of dog trying to say hi to Officer Gearrey, I also know that the officer had other means of getting Rebel away- taser or mace- that would have kept the situation more safe. His choice to discharge a loaded weapon in a small space on concrete could have ended much worse if the bullet had ricocheted in a different direction. This officer showed me that the Nampa Police department need better gun safety training, as well as better training in general. It showed that Officer Gearrey was too trigger ready, even with children right there.
I honestly don’t feel safe or comfortable with the Nampa Police Department after I saw how their officer reacted yesterday. I pray that my dog recovers for my kids sake after what they witnessed. And I pray that the police department trains their officers on how to react to situations better.
I am trying to raise the money for all of Rebels medical bills.
Officer Gearrey last made the news when he found a lost tortoise last year that he did not have to shoot.
