Roommates who sued a Maryland county Monday claim police officers illegally entered their apartment without a warrant, detained them at gunpoint without justification and unnecessarily shot their pet dog, which was left paralyzed and ultimately euthanized.

The dog, a boxer mix named Hennessey, did not attack the three officers who entered the apartment before two of them shot the animal with their firearms and the third fired a stun gun at it, according to the federal lawsuit.

The lawsuit seeks at least $16 million in damages over the June 2, 2021 encounter, which started with Prince George’s County police officers responding to a report of a dog bite at an apartment complex where the four plaintiffs lived. What happened next was captured on police body camera video and video from a plaintiff’s cellphone.

  • @QHC
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    77 months ago

    Are the police the correct organization to handle a potential dog bite?

    • @[email protected]
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      fedilink
      37 months ago

      At least where I live, animal control falls under the police department. Could be different elsewhere.

    • BlanketsWithSmallpox
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      -37 months ago

      Do you want to pay more money to make another organization who can or even more money to fire, reorganize, and train an entire county first response system?