Ocala police shoot, kill 3 dogs they say charged at them

Police Chief Mike Balkin and I called this uh press conference really to, uh, simply talk about an officer involved shooting which occurred on, uh, January 29th of this year. Um, the incident began in the in the early morning hours after we received *** call in our dispatch center from *** homeowner in the Bell Chase subdivision. That homeowner relayed that there were multiple aggressive dogs that had chased him back into his residence. Our call center forwarded that information to Marion County Animal Services and requested that they respond to the complainant’s residence. Animal services reported that they were unable to reach the caller by phone, so they called us back concerned for the homeowner safety, called us back, asked if we could send our officers back to the homeowner’s house, uh, and do *** well-being check to make sure he was OK. Our officers, one being *** 4 year veteran, along with his trainee of 3 weeks, uh, responded *** short time later, met the caller at his front door. The officers entered the home at that time they observed 3 dogs who were at the back of the the residence outside the screen porch. The dogs were observed barking aggressively. They were digging at the landscaping and scratching at the screen, reportedly trying to get into the home. The color adviser officers that prior to their arrival, he had been outside in his backyard when he heard the dogs barking dogs then approached him in an aggressive manner, nearly biting him before he was able to get back inside the house. Our officers in contact at animal services at that time learned that they were still 45 minutes out. It was at that time that animal services asked if the officers could remain at the scene to not only monitor the situation but also assist if needed upon Animal services arrival. About about 45 minutes after monitoring the dogs began in the backyard, the, uh, dogs’ attention suddenly turned. Uh, they directed themselves towards the front of the house, ran around the yard. At that point, our officers exited the front door of the house to continue, continue monitoring the dogs. Uh, unfortunately at that point noticed an early morning jogger that was running towards them and the dogs, uh, fearing for the jogger’s safety. One of our officers yelled at the, the jogger to, uh, turn around and go the other way. Unfortunately, the dog’s attention turned towards our police officers. The dogs ran towards the officers coming within just *** few feet, and it was at that time that our officers fired multiple rounds, striking all three dogs. Two of those dogs were immediately incapacitated in the driveway. The 3rd dog was injured and ran towards the rear of the home. Fearing that the third dog might still be *** threat to others in the area, our officers ran after the dog and while doing so fired several more rounds until the last dog finally could succumbed to his injuries. The officers then returned to the front yard only to discover that the two other dogs were still alive in the driveway at that point. One of my officers fired 2 more rounds, effectively euthanizing the animals. At this time, we are gonna play *** highly redacted, uh, video to further illustrate exactly what occurred that morning. We are prepared to provide the media with *** less redacted copy of that, uh, for your use, but you can go ahead and play that and, uh, then we’ll continue. Good. I have no idea. They attacked me and my my dog in the back. Um, no, they’re, they’re free. I tell you what, they are mean or. You know my dog’s in here and you know I’m in here. So there’s 5 of them. As far as I know, there’s 32 browns and that black one. There’s another brown one that will come running up. Yeah, so the reason why they they usually send animal control. The reason why they sent us is they tried to call you and they couldn’t get in touch with you, so I wanna make sure that you’re OK on my phone. That one right there I actually tried to dig under the screen. You know I dig it again. This is crazy, I mean. I’m just so mad. I just, I’m walking my dog would you imagine. Cause they also got that, they also got that Pain time going you know they feel like they’re invincible Bers they get back. What would done. Stop, stop, Sir, sir. I got it. Jesus Christ But 6. We just 53 dogs. He’s getting involved. And and then you’re. No We just signaled 35 3 dogs in case you need any calls. Right Uh That’s pretty Obviously, ***, *** difficult video to watch. The total number of shots fired by our officers was 30. There were no injuries, but there was ancillary damage to the caller’s garage door. *** vehicle and the side of the home which was caused by either *** direct bullet strike, *** ricochet, or bullet fragmentation. The officers involved in this incident were immediately reassigned pending the outcome of an administrative review that included an internal affairs investigation to determine if there were any policy violations in this case. That investigation was completed. The results were forwarded to *** disposition panel who had the responsibility of determining any policy violations. That panel sustained *** serious misconduct violation of our use of force policies against both officers. I agreed with those findings. And subsequently we moved to discipline both the officers. It is important to note here that the panel concluded that the initial shots fired by both of our officers at the front of the home were in fact justified. However, once the 3rd dog ran off, it posed no further reasonable danger and therefore the remaining shots were unnecessary and potentially reckless in nature. Further department actions included policy changes related to the use of force against aggressive animals, and that policy now requires officers to utilize nonlethal lethal force options whatever possible possible, and highly encourages pepper spray as the preferred method for dealing with aggressive animals. We’ve also incorporated practical training related to encounters with aggressive animals, and again that training puts *** huge emphasis on pepper spray, being the preferred method for dealing with aggressive animals. In the end, I’m never gonna be able to remove or wanna remove an officer’s ability to use deadly force any time they reasonably believe that there’s *** possibility of great bodily harm or death, uh, and when that happens and when we get it right, I’m gonna stand up here and, and stand behind our officers. Unfortunately this was *** tragic event which I believe we simply got wrong. Our actions were unreasonable and we’ve had to take measures internally to ensure that that doesn’t happen again. I do have to remind myself that I wouldn’t be standing in front of you all. Uh, if these animals had been properly confined by their owner, uh, so it’s probably *** good time to remind all pet owners out there that they do have not only ***, *** legal responsibility but also *** moral obligation, uh, to prevent their officers, uh, from running, running at large and being *** threat or or *** harassment to others and with that I’m happy to take any questions you might have. Yes. I mean you just show it to all of us. You can hear that dog in that video when you first went through all of that when you saw that, I mean just I assume you’re *** pet owner what went through your mind when you saw that, sure. I was, uh, initially taken aback. I think like any pet owner, any reasonable person would be. It’s *** It’s *** brutal video to watch. Uh, I remind people all the time, look, police work isn’t always pretty, right? Uh, sometimes we have to do things that, uh, we prefer not to do. I certainly don’t think these officers went out there at the start of their shift with the hope of pulling the trigger on their gun. Um, you know, unfortunately this was *** circumstance that they were put into by these dogs being allowed to run at large. They felt attacked, they felt threatened the initial steps that they took. I believe we’re justified, uh, that’s backed up by disposition panel’s report, um, you know, it’s when that third dog took off and ran where we’re chasing after *** wounded, uh, uh, dog that I I think it becomes unreasonable and something that we should have stopped and de-escalated at that moment. Yeah, the officers, uh, were both interviewed as part of the internal affairs investigation. uh, the primary officer, the training officer that did the majority of the shooting. I indicated that he didn’t know what the dog was gonna do after being injured and felt that there was ***, *** well founded fear that that that dog could run off and attack somebody else so he’d already seen one, jogger running through the neighborhood, so he had ***, uh, he had what he believed to be *** well founded fear that that dog could attack somebody else yes. How did you discipline the office? So the uh the training officer has uh 4 years of of service. I mentioned earlier he’s got some, some experience under his belt um we hold him at ***, at *** much higher level. Uh, he’s been here quite some time now. Uh, he was given *** 100 hour suspension. He was removed from the field training. An evaluation program, and he’s going through retraining as, as is the rest of our patrol, uh, uh, bureau. The, uh, training the trainee who has been on the job for literally 3 weeks, uh, received *** 20 hour suspension and will be retrained and then recirculated through our training program. Yes ma’am. Tell us more about the pet owners where were. Something like this happen Yeah, so that’s *** great question and, and something I, yeah, I didn’t know if we get into today or not, uh, the pet owners live in an adjoining neighborhood, um, directly behind Bell Chase, uh, and yes, there have been other instances there’s *** little bit of an issue that the, the dog owners actually live in the county. Bell Chase where the shooting happened is in the city, um. I can tell you that um the uh dog owner’s neighbors, I believe on each side of him have called the animal services about the same dogs, uh, multiple times, calls it Animal services to respond to that residence on at least 3 occasions, uh, dating back to October, and those responses resulted in no less than 15, uh, citations issued for the same type of aggressive behavior along with the failure to provide proof of rabies vaccinations and things like that. Just, just, uh, uh, was there any sort of response from the actual owners themselves. Uh, so, uh, we, we reached out to the homeowners in an attempt to conduct an internal affairs interview with them. They declined to, to come in and meet with us on that, um, you know, their, uh, online presence has certainly been pretty damning on, on our agency, uh, basically stating that we killed their pets for no reason. So that’s, that’s really all I can say about their response.

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