An Iowa officer said a dog bit him before he pulled his gun and accidentally shot a woman. Police video shows otherwise, a lawyer says

Jason Clayworth , Jason Clayworth | The Des Moines Register

Show Caption Hide Caption Video: Burlington officer fatally shoots woman From 2015: Burlington police officer Jesse Hill, responding to a report of a domestic fight, fired his weapon at a growling family dog and inadvertently hit and killed 34-year-old Autumn Steele.

DAVENPORT, Ia. — Confidential police video fails to corroborate a police officer's account that he was bitten by a dog before firing shots in 2015 that accidentally killed a Burlington, Iowa, mother, an attorney said Thursday during a federal court hearing.

The dog bite is one of the big reasons that Burlington police officer Jesse Hill cited to justify firing the shots that killed 34-year-old Autumn Steele in January 2015. Hill was responding to a domestic disturbance at the home Steele shared with her husband Gabriel.

A 12-second clip of the video from Hill’s body camera that authorities released shows he fired his gun twice without warning after a growling dog is heard, fatally wounding Autumn Steele in front of her toddler.

Authorities contend that a German shepherd jumped on Hill’s back and bit his thigh, causing injuries that required treatment, authorities said.

The shooting was justified because of the dog's attack, a prosecutor later determined, resulting in Hill returning to work without facing discipline.

In a separate legal battle, the Iowa Department of Public Safety and the Burlington Police Department have been charged with violating the state’s open records law for refusing to release the full video, saying it is part of an investigative record and is confidential.

The video was not played in open court Thursday. But Chief Judge James Gritzner of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa allowed attorneys in the case to describe pieces of the unreleased footage.

Not only does the unreleased video show no bite, but Hill never says that he had been bitten — a direct contrast to what he wrote later in his report, Dave O’Brien, a Cedar Rapids attorney who represents the Steele family, said during the hearing.

O’Brien additionally said the video shows that Hill's lapel camera was pointing at the sky when Hill fired because he had slipped on ice, ultimately losing his gun in the snow.

Firing the weapon in proximity to bystanders was inappropriate, O’Brien said.

“This is a tragic case. This officer acted in a way that was entirely unreasonable,” O’Brien said in Thursday’s hearing.

The city of Burlington and the Steele family each asked Gritzner Thursday for summary judgment in their favor, which would decide the case without a trial.

Gritzner said he would issue his ruling at a later date.

Calls to Des Moines County Attorney Amy Beavers and Burlington Police Chief Doug Beaird were not immediately returned Thursday.

Martha Shaff, a Davenport attorney who is representing the city of Burlington in the case, did not respond or comment during Thursday’s hearing about the apparent absence of a dog bite or a report of the bite from the video footage taken at the scene.

Autumn Steele had spent the night before her death in jail after being arrested for allegedly assaulting her husband. She was in violation of a no-contact order and reportedly screamed and hit him again when police arrived the home just before the shooting.

Hill was responding to a call of a disturbance and — in seconds — faced many unknown factors as he approached the scene, including an unfriendly dog, Shaff noted.

“The plaintiffs can’t show the officer’s behavior was unreasonable,” Shaff said.