Heartbreaking photo shows the grief of a dog owner moments after police shoot dead her friendly family pet



This devastating photo tells the tragic story of a family dog, shot dead by a police officer as he pursued a robbery suspect on Sunday.

Monkey got caught up in the chaos of a foot pursuit along Hodges Street in Lake Charles, Louisiana as officers chased teens believed to have beaten a man in a mall parking lot before stealing his car which they then abandoned.

The dog was in a back yard on the street when she heard the commotion and ran out through an open gate.



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Heart-wrenching: Dolores Crochet sits near Monkey after the dog is shot dead by a police officer

One of the officers involved in the chase apparently thought that Monkey was attacking and opened fired on her.

Monkey's distress owner, Delores Crochet, witnessed one of the shots being fired and said that neighbours told her of the three others.



‘He was shooting down like this,’ Crochet told kplctv.com , gesturing toward the ground.

‘Monkey wasn't jumping on him or anything. Four times he shot and the bullet went in. She came and met me, walked over there and she laid down and that's where she died.’

Devastated: Dolores Crochet was looking after Monkey for her son, Chris, when the tragedy happened. Right, she demonstrates the angle at which her dog Monkey was shot by a police officer

Innocent: The case has caused outrage with calls for action to be taken against the officer who shot Monkey

The heartbreaking photograph of Crochet sitting beside the slain dog was posted on social media websites and a petition has been launched calling for action to be taken against the officer who killed her.

COP ON DOG ATTACKS

In April officers in Austin, Texas went to the wrong address when responded to an emergency call, pulling a gun on homeowner Michael Paxton and shooting his dog. The same month British schoolgirl Susi Ryan was horrified when heavy-handed police tasered the dog she was watching for a friend because it had grazed her knee. Also in April police responding to a disturbance in Jonesboro, Georgia, were accused of 'cold blooded murder' after shooting a Golden Retriever at the home Last year cops in Philadelphia received reports of a dog biting someone on the let but made a mistake with the address and shot the wrong dog.



Crochet’s son, Chris, told the news site there must have been an alternative to shooting her.

‘She had not ripped his clothes, she had not tried to bite him,’ he said, ‘and he shot her instead of trying to use pepper spray or some non lethal force.’

Deputy Lake Charles Police Chief Mark Kraus visited the family home to investigate what happened.



‘When the suspect left the gate open the owner's dog came out of that opening, saw the policeman running through his yard and approached the policeman,’ he said.

‘The policeman at that point, thought the dog was attacking him and he shot the dog.’ Kraus added that it was too soon to know whether the officer used his gun appropriately.



Two youths and a nineteen-year-old were arrested in connection with the robbery.

Scene: Monkey was in the back yard of a home on Hodges Street in Lake Charles, Louisiana Bad timing: Monkey ran from the back yard through an open gate and got caught up in the chaos of the foot pursuit

Watch the video here:

KPLC 7 News, Lake Charles, Louisiana

