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Texas Dog-Park Shootings
UPDATED: Man Shoots, Kills Dog at Dog Park, Because...Texas
UPDATE 1/27/15 @ 3:00 p.m.: Today we heard from a witness who gave a statement to police, but the story he gave us conflicts in part with what's in the incident report. . . .In Monday's story, we shared the deputy's version of what a witness who was "20 to 30 yards away." However, this witness said he told the investigator that he was 8 feet away. "I had a perfect view. I stood there at a perfect zero-degree angle, straight ahead. Everything was right in front of me," the witness said. Here's what he said what he saw: Diesel and Potts' German shepherd were play-wrestling, "and [Potts] kicks the dog and tells it to fuck off. And at that moment, the dog whimpered...and then [Potts'] dog comes and reinitiates to play....And at that moment, [Potts] pulls out his gun, takes aim. One bullet. Pow. And then the dog cries. Re-aims the gun." Potts fired two more rounds. . . .The witness alleged that Potts didn't hesitate, and added, "He had no remorse. He held his gun in the air as my wife asked [what did you do]? And he said, 'What do you think I just did? These are real fucking bullets.'" Potts' wife was approximately 15-20 yards away at the time and was never in danger, the witness claimed.
The witness added that there is no physical evidence of a fight between the dogs. "Where are the dogs injured? When was there, like, any injury to the dog or to the human?" he said. He said Potts said, "Control your fucking dog," after shooting Diesel. He alleged that Potts just had a smug smile on his face. Not once did he say he was sorry. Not once did he ever say, 'Check on that dog, make sure he's OK'...he was aggressive....All of us were kind of afraid to keep him in the park, but we had to. All of us were saying, like, 'Don't let him get away.'" . . . . . .As for Potts' assertion -- per the incident report -- that he called 911 himself, the witness told us that that didn't happen until all the other witnesses pulled their phones out first. . . . He got the impression that the officers who arrived were generally on Potts' side, and when there was a discrepancy among witnesses over how many shots were fired, the witness told us that "They said, 'it's not a human, we don't need to count the bullets....They were like, 'Nah, it's not like CSI.'"
We also heard from a woman Tuesday who claimed she was only a few feet away from the shooting, but that when she tried to tell an officer what she saw, the officer only told her that Potts had a right to carry a gun. She told us: "I tried to explain, like -- kids are coming to the park. Nobody's life was in danger. He put everyone's life in danger...and the cop, he was like, 'I'm not going to talk to you.'" The woman said she was still shaken up by the shooting, and said that she felt Potts endangered everyone in the park by firing his weapon. "He had no right to put us in this situation," she said. . . .The woman said that after the shots were fired, "The owner said, 'Is it a real bullet?' And [Potts] said, 'What do you think? Of course I'm going to put [a] real fucking bullet in my gun." She said that she knew Diesel from the park, and that while he could play rough, he was not vicious. She said he often played with the woman's chihuahua mixes, and that the dogs made growling sounds, but not out of aggression. She said that's what Diesel was doing with Potts' dog. . . . "I am a dog owner, and my dogs play all the time and make that sound," she said. "It looked so normal to me....He was overreacting." She said Potts grabbed Diesel by his blue harness and separated him from his own dog, but that the dogs started playing again. That's when Potts kicked Diesel, the woman said. . . . She said she approached Potts after she saw him kick Diesel, and that's when Potts fired the first shot. Then Potts "went two more steps and, like, I cannot forget the hate in his face." Then she saw Potts shoot the dog twice more. . . ."He was so proud -- that's the worst part," she said, adding that when she came within two feet of Potts, "He still had his gun in his hand, and he was screaming [in] my face."
She said, "The dog was limping. He went under the tree. He laid down, and that poor guy was like...blood came from his mouth, and his owner turned to me, and she said, 'Promise me, you're going to tell the cops...promise me'....And I waited for those cops to come, I waited for those people to listen to me. They did not listen." . . . . . We asked Harris County Sheriff's Office spokesman Deputy Thomas Gilliland if deputies interviewed every witness at the scene. He told us in an email that "When a case is referred to investigators, they will try to contact the witnesses listed in the initial patrol report. The patrol deputies try to find as many [witnesses] as possible for the investigator to follow up with." . . . . . . Unfortunately, the woman who told us she was ignored is not listed in the incident report, so how could investigators follow up with her? Or is she full of shit? If she is, then it would be nice if HCSO could rule her out. Somehow, though, we don't think that's going to happen. . . . .We left another voicemail for Potts, but it's possible that the ringing phone made him fear for his safety and he shot it.
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/news/2015/01/dog_shot_park_diesel.php?page=2\
Justice For Deisel Facebook page
Woman shoots at dog in Missouri City park
Police say the 68-year-old shooter had a right to protect herself.
MISSOURI CITY, Texas - There was gunfire at two dog parks over the weekend. At one of those parks, a family pet was killed. Just the day before, someone also fired at a woman and her dog in Missouri City.
"She emptied the gun on us. She just went pop, pop pop and we were lucky we didn't get hit," according to Kate, who didn't want to tell KHOU 11 News her last name but says she was walking with her 9-year-old dog Henry when they barely escaped gunfire on Saturday. She says all she could do at the time was scream. "Are you crazy!" Kate shouted. "You're shooting at me!" . . . Missouri City police say those shots were fired by a woman who was scared of Henry while she also was walking in Buffalo Run Park. Investigators say the 68-year-old shooter had a right to protect herself. "She was so fearful of my dog at 150 feet that she opened fire," Kate said. "She emptied her gun on us."
We spoke to the woman off-camera at her home in Missouri City. She says the dog was off it's leash and she didn't know what it was capable of. That woman does have a permit to carry the 38-caliber revolver she discharged. The gun will be returned to her. . . . . .
(VIDEO at link)
http://www.khou.com/story/news/local/2015/01/26/woman-shoots-at-dog-in-missouri-city-dog-park/22379321/
31 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
We NEED moar gunz!!!
Response to Faryn Balyncd (Original post)
Response to Arkansas Granny (Reply #4)
...these dogs.
It appears from your statements that you are no more interested in witness accounts than were the officers.
And one of the primary purposes of dog parks is for dogs to be able to run and interact off leash.
Response to Faryn Balyncd (Reply #7)
Enjoy your stay, it will probably be a short one.
but instead of taking statements to make such a determination, told a witness that the shooter had such rights.
That someone has a right to defend themselves is not subject to determining any facts, nor is that right in dispute.
What is in dispute is whether the actions in killing the dog were justified, and it appears the officers were not interested in collecting information to make that determination.
You imply that the witnesses testimony is to be compared to that of an owner who is defending his "baby", and that witnesses therefore are tolerant of aggressive dog behavior. This is contrary to common sense and to the experience of observation of people and dogs at dog parks.
But then, you describe your opinion of dogs pretty clearly.
Response to hatrack (Reply #11)
Response to bpj62 (Reply #19)
Response to adigal (Reply #16)
