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Choke03
01-09-2003, 02:45 PM
COOKEVILLE, Tennessee (CNN) -- Police video released Wednesday showed a North Carolina family kneeling and handcuffed, who shrieked as officers killed their dog -- which appeared to be playfully wagging its tail -- with a shotgun during a traffic stop.
The Smoak family was pulled over the evening of January 1 on Interstate 40 in eastern Tennessee by officers who mistakenly suspected them of a carjacking. An investigation showed James Smoak had simply left his wallet on the roof of his car at a gas station, and motorists who saw his money fly off the car as he drove away called police.

The family was driving through eastern Tennessee on their way home from a New Year trip to Nashville. They told CNN they are in the process of retaining a lawyer and considering legal action against the Cookeville, Tennessee, Police Department and the Tennessee Highway Patrol for what happened to them and their dog.

In the video, released by the highway patrol, officers are heard ordering the family, one by one, to get out of their car with their hands up. James Smoak and his wife, Pamela, and 17-year-old son Brandon are ordered onto their knees and handcuffed.

"What did I do?" James Smoak asks the officers.

"Sir, inside information is that you was involved in some type of robbery in Davidson County," the unidentified officer says.

Smoak and his wife protest incredulously, telling the officers that they are from South Carolina and that their mother and father-in-law are traveling in another car near them.

The Smoaks told CNN that as they knelt, handcuffed, they pleaded with officers to close the doors of their car so their two dogs would not escape, but the officers did not heed them.

Pamela Smoak is seen on the tape looking up at an officer, telling him slowly, "That dog is not mean. He won't hurt you."

Her husband says, "I got a dog in the car. I don't want him to jump out."

The tape then shows the Smoaks' medium-size brown dog romping on the shoulder of the Interstate, its tail wagging. As the family yells, the dog, named Patton, first heads away from the road, then quickly circles back toward the family.

An officer in a blue uniform aims his shotgun at the dog and fires at its head, killing it immediately.

For several moments, all that is audible are shrieks as the family reacts to the shooting. James Smoak even stands up, but officers pull him back down.

Choke03
01-09-2003, 02:47 PM
Y'all shot my dog! Y'all shot my dog!" James Smoak cries. "Oh my God! God Almighty!"
"You shot my dog!" screams his wife, distraught and still handcuffed. "Why'd you kill our dog?"

"Jesus, tell me, why did y'all shoot my dog?" James Smoak says.

The officers bring him to the patrol car, and the family calms down, but still they ask the officers for an explanation. One of them says Patton was "going after" the officer.

"No he wasn't, man," James Smoak says. "Y'all didn't have to kill the dog like that."

Brandon told CNN that Patton, was playful and gentle -- "like Scooby-Doo" -- and may have simply gone after the beam of the flashlight as he often did at home, when Brandon and the dog would play.

The Tennessee Department of Safety, which oversees the Highway Patrol, has said an investigation is underway.

'Could have been avoided'

Cookeville Police Chief Robert Terry released a statement on the department's Web site Wednesday night describing the department's regret over the incident. The Cookeville Police Department site was not responding Thursday morning.

"I know the officer wishes that circumstances could have been different so he could have prevented shooting the dog," Terry wrote. "It is never gratifying to have to put an animal down, especially a family pet, and the officer assures me that he never displayed any satisfaction in doing so."

Terry said he and the vice-mayor of Cookeville met with the family before they left "to convey our deepest sympathies" for the loss of their dog.

"No one wants to experience this kind of thing, and it's very unfortunate that it occurred," he wrote. "If we had the benefit of hindsight, I'm sure some -- if not all of this -- could have been avoided. I believe the Tennessee Highway Patrol feels the same way."

The department is conducting an investigation to determine what, if anything, could have been done differently, he said. Police also plan to be in contact with the Smoak family, Terry said.

The Smoaks buried their pet at home. A white cross marks the grave.

dedprez*
01-09-2003, 02:54 PM
ya..heard about this...tragic..

Badgermoon
01-09-2003, 02:55 PM
Doesn't that just make you so proud of our men in blue? What integrity! What devotion to duty! What a high standard of professionalism! And all the while we hear them whinning about how they lay their lives on the line for the sake of everybody. FUCKING CRYBABIES! They don't have anywhere near the injury or death rate of a lot of other proffesions, yet they sing that tired old tune all the time. Nobody forced them to become cops. Do you're damn job right and shut up, or get a different job.... bastards make me want to puke sometimes.

Choke03
01-09-2003, 03:00 PM
The cop must have been on a power trip, if he would have shut the door like the "supposed PERP" asked him to the dog could have no way have appeared dangerous. I'd be mighty pissed if that shit happened in front of my wife and kids.

slimm
01-09-2003, 03:19 PM
Un-fu#@ing-believable!

insulinAL
01-09-2003, 03:39 PM
Originally posted by slimm
Un-fu#@ing-believable!

no shit man, what the hell is country coming to???

gander
01-09-2003, 04:15 PM
If that happened to me, I would do everything in my power to kick that officer's ass!

Badgermoon
01-09-2003, 06:03 PM
Originally posted by gander
If that happened to me, I would do everything in my power to kick that officer's ass!

I kinda think an attourney can kick more of his ass right now than anybody else...and maybe his department too. I wonder if this would even concerne them if people didn't raise some hell over it. And I think that is the saddest part of the whole thing.

gander
01-09-2003, 07:09 PM
Yeah I know badger, I just know how I would act if it was MY dogs.

DADDY48
01-09-2003, 08:05 PM
ape shit , i would go completely ape shit, flip the fuck out, plot on the motherfucker who did it.no excuse what so ever

realcooltime
01-09-2003, 10:37 PM
damn, you got some sick cops down there. Come up here, the cops smoke weed. Hell, I think the cops sell weed to dogs!!!

hostile
01-09-2003, 10:38 PM
Yeah. I would get that mother fucker. There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever. I would track him down and hurt him bad. And I would not get caught. It would be totally and completely planned out and pre meditated.

I will do the same thing to anyone that ever hurts my kids. I have thought this though a lot. Kids make you think about these things.

My six year old daughter would be devistated if her dog was shot.


Oh, and by the way. When the mother fucker turned up missing. I would still be steadily on the their ass with my lawyer.

This really pisses me off. Those of you that love your dog know what I am talking about.

Harvey Balboner
01-10-2003, 12:01 AM
Thats crazy, I bet the family gets paid big time. Most of the cops around here are like that, small town, they are all on a powertrip.

realcooltime
01-10-2003, 12:27 AM
hostile, has anyone ever told you that you have the coolest avatar ever?!

bigshug
01-10-2003, 01:20 AM
My dog is as much a part of my family as my wife and children, shit he was here before they were - and if some cop ever hurt him in any way I'd tear his balls of. Sad thing is that it probably WOULD happen to me, as my dog is really protective and wouldn't hesitate to attack someone who he thought was a threat to my safety....

tinman01
01-10-2003, 08:09 PM
I saw the video,Its scary knowing theres paraniod trigger happy
cops out there,he needs to be suspended for life....

bigshug
01-11-2003, 02:01 AM
Glad I didn't see the video, that shit gets me pretty fired up....on a positive note, I heard on our local news tonight that the fat, bloated, greasy, twelve sandwich eating cop has been getting death threats!

thundercat
01-11-2003, 12:07 PM
MOTHERFUCKERS>>> thats all I got to say!

hairynutz
01-11-2003, 08:38 PM
I was pulled over and hancuffed. My rot jumped out of the bed of my pick up and went after the cop. Thank god he only pepper sprayed. The dog went to the vet and was ok.The officer ended up getting away with it.

Whats f^&k up is that he put a few shootgun rounds in a fifty pound dog. Way over zealous.

basskiller
01-11-2003, 08:47 PM
He should be removed as an officer

basskiller
01-11-2003, 08:49 PM
Lawsuit likely in dog's death
Action by police angers N.C. man

By JOHN GEROME, The Associated Press


NASHVILLE, TENN. -- A traffic stop following erroneous reports of a robbery ended in heartbreak when the family dog bounded out of the car, his tail wagging, and was shot to death by police. Now, the dog's owner wants the officers punished, and the officer who pulled the trigger says he has been getting death threats.

"I don't ever want to see this happen to anybody else. That's why we can't let this go away," said James Smoak of Saluda, N.C., who owned the 1 1/2-year-old pit bull-boxer mix named Patton.

Gov. Don Sundquist said Friday that he had apologized on behalf of the state of Tennessee to the family.

Sundquist, an avid dog lover, said the incident made him and his wife, Martha, heartsick. "I have had multiple occasions to talk to Mr. Smoak and I have on more than one occasion told him how bad I feel about it," Sundquist said.

Meanwhile, Cookeville Police Officer Eric Hall, who shot the dog, said Thursday that people are misjudging him.

"It's been very difficult, but a lot of people who've made comments don't know me," Hall said on WTVF-TV in Nashville. "It's kind of taken a life of its own where people are judging without knowing all the facts."

Smoak, a seafood salesman, said he has contacted attorneys about the New Year's Day shooting and plans legal action.

He describes the family's ordeal as "a nightmare we can't wake up from," and says he will never forget having to load the dead dog into the car for the ride home.

The incident began when Tennessee state troopers and Cookeville police stopped the Smoaks' green station wagon as they were returning from a vacation in Nashville.

Another motorist had reported seeing money flying from the vehicle as it sped down Interstate 40, and authorities feared there had been a robbery.

They later discovered that the money -- about $445 -- was fluttering from Smoak's wallet, which he had mistakenly left on the car roof after pumping gas.

The patrol car videotape of the stop, released Wednesday by the Tennessee Highway Patrol, shows troopers ordering James and Pamela Smoak and their teenage son, Brandon, out of the car, and the three emerging with their hands up, getting on their knees and being handcuffed.

Then Patton bounds out, his tail wagging, and races toward Hall. The video shows Hall stepping back, then firing his shotgun. Hall said he thought the dog was a pit bull and that he was about to attack him.

"I noticed that it trained in right on me; the dog's coming right at me," he said. "I yelled at the dog as I was backing up. I screamed at it; it kept advancing and barking in an aggressive manner. It's unfortunate what happened after that."

Hall, who said he has received death threats, was assigned to administrative duties pending an independent review.

basskiller
01-11-2003, 08:51 PM
Highway Patrol chief weighs steps merited by dog shooting
Procedural changes, discipline considered

By J.J. STAMBAUGH, stambaugh@knews.com
January 11, 2003

Tennessee Highway Patrol Col. Mark ***an will decide what punishments, if any, will be meted out in connection with the Jan. 1 shooting of a dog on Interstate 40.

***an will also determine whether any policy changes are needed.

"The colonel's office is now looking at what, if any, policies or procedures may have been violated and what, if any, disciplinary action is appropriate," said Beth Womack, Tennessee Department of Safety spokeswoman.

Although investigators have pored over all the audio- and videotaped information recorded during the traffic stop and shooting, Womack indicated that at least some conversations were not recorded.

"It was found that some of the communication between dispatchers was made on a Nextel-type two-way instead of a recorded telephone or radio line, therefore cannot be absolutely confirmed," Womack said.

In a written incident report filed after the shooting, Cookeville officer Eric Hall said he asked a dispatcher "what felony had been committed" as he drove to assist troopers but didn't find that out before arriving.

Hall said it appeared the dog "single me out from the other officers and charged toward me, grouling (sic) in an aggressive manner. I yelled at the dog to "Get Back" but it attempted to circle me to attack, so I felt I had no other option but to protect myself. I fired once at the dog instantly putting it down."

"When asked during our investigation why the passenger door was not closed, Lieutenant (Jerry) Andrews indicated that if he or another officer had moved to that side of the car, he would have been in the line of any potential crossfire," Womack said in a press release. "Remember - at this time, the troopers on the scene were still under the impression that a felony may have been committed, and were acting accordingly."

After the shooting, James Smoak tried to stand up but was wrestled _down by troopers. After he was put in a patrol car, he repeatedly asked the officers to get a veterinarian but his requests were ignored. "You all have gone crazy," he said.

Later, after the officers determined the family had committed no crime, they gave Smoak a plastic bag to collect the dog's carcass after he told them to leave his former pet alone. "You've done enough," he said.

After the officers removed the handcuffs from Pamela Smoak, she sank to the ground and cried. "I'm never stepping foot in this state again," she said.

Womack said the state had not offered to compensate the family for the loss of their pet.

In a written complaint against the officers, Pamela Smoak lashed out at the handling of the initial phone call.

"No one ever called in a robbery or any felony!" Smoak wrote. "A felony stop should not have been made. A murder has been committed by the Tennessee Highway Patrol. There was a very bad error on someone's part and we paid for it."

J.J. Stambaugh may be reached at 865-342-6307

basskiller
01-11-2003, 08:56 PM
http://mas.scripps.com/KNS/2003/01/10/0111hall1e_d.jpg
eric hall
The prick

basskiller
01-11-2003, 09:00 PM
the video
http://www.wkrn.com/Global/story.asp?S=1076500&nav=1ugFDHrO
Click on the link right under the picture

"Dog Shooting Tape Released"

hostile
01-11-2003, 09:14 PM
Originally posted by realcooltime
hostile, has anyone ever told you that you have the coolest avatar ever?!

Thanks. And, yeah Bass started a thread about it being cool one time.



And, everytime I see this thread I get fucking pissed. In the video, the dog did'nt look like he could hurt anyone. Especially a grown man. I hope someone torchures that mother fucker.

Badgermoon
01-12-2003, 01:17 AM
You've got to be shitting me. I just watched the video tape of the incident. That little dog couldn't hurt shit. One kick would have sent it flying. They knew there was a dog there, why not use pepper spray, that will disable a dog. With the number of officers there, and the lack of a struggle, there was no way that pig (and I think that cop IS a pig) needed to shoot the dog. If it was comming after him, it would have come straight at him. If he had dogs like he said, he would have known that.