The “unfortunate” police shooting of a dog in Texas has inspired an online fundraising campaign in support of the veterinary technician owner and her family.
The incident occurred on June 3 at 3:17 p.m. when the Waco Police Department was called for a burglary in progress.
According to the department’s public information officer, Cierra Shipley, when dispatchers entered the reported address into their system, “the address autocorrected with the same house number in the 3200 Block N. 20th St., but the corresponding adjacent “A” street was not included.”
“Our officers acted in good faith to the dispatched address,” Shipley said in a statement released on the Waco Police Department Facebook page.
When officers arrived at 3200 Block of N. 20th, they saw a backdoor ajar, “which corroborated information received in the initial call.” Upon announcing their presence and entering the residence, “multiple dogs came towards officers who retreated,” according to Waco Police Department.
“After the dog lunged a second time toward the officer, the officer made the decision to fire one round of his duty-issued weapon, striking the dog,” Shipley says in the release.
The injured dog—a 10-year-old Labrador named Finn—was taken to the emergency medical clinic by its owner, Cassie Page.
A Waco PD Commander met Page at the veterinary clinic to offer “sympathy, and provided information regarding services provided as a result of the incident,” according to Waco Police Department.
Page, who is a veterinary technician at Hewitt Veterinary Hospital, told KWTX the police officers “never knocked” on her front door.
“They strictly just jumped the fence,” she said. “They responded to the wrong address of a breaking and entering, and saw my back door open. I leave it cracked so my dogs can go in and out. We have five large dogs.”
A friend of the couple, Tori Russell, has launched a GoFundMe page to help pay for legal services for the incident.