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Dog Shot In Botched Drug Raid
Pubdate: Fri, 25 Oct 2002
Source: London Free Press (CN ON)
Copyright: 2002 The London Free Press a division of Sun Media Corporation.
Contact: http://www.fyilondon.com/londonfreepress/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/243
Author: Kelly Pedro
DOG SHOT IN BOTCHED DRUG RAID
London police shot and killed a family dog after a botched drug raid on the
wrong apartment Wednesday.
Police Chief Brian Collins has launched a full investigation to determine
how the mistake was made.
"He's my lifeline," Marcie Carroll said of her six-year-old dog, Bear.
Carroll, 22, said she is unable to have children and Bear, a German
Shepherd and Lab cross, was her son.
"He's as important to me as anyone's child and now he's gone.
"How are you supposed to trust the police? If I jumped in front of him,
would I get shot, too?" she asked through tears.
Six officers, some in riot gear, knocked down the door of Carroll's
apartment on Oxford Street, east of Highbury Avenue, Wednesday afternoon.
Carroll's belongings, most still in cardboard boxes, were strewn throughout
the apartment yesterday.
Carroll, who rushed home from work after a call from her landlord, said
after the raid police showed her a warrant that didn't have her name on it.
Police told her there was an informant in her apartment.
But sources say the informant told police several times the person they
were seeking didn't live in the building.
Building superintendent Berta Liddiard confirmed the person whose name
appeared on the search warrant never lived in the building.
Liddiard said police jimmied the lock on the building's front door. She
said she was standing on a landing a few stairs from Carroll's apartment
and heard a loud bang when police busted down the door.
When Liddiard asked police why they didn't buzz the superintendent, they
told her they didn't have to.
"I could have got the dog out," Liddiard said, adding Bear was the most
gentle animal in the building.
Collins said officers shot Bear because he came at them and couldn't be
subdued.
"Obviously, (with) a stranger coming into the apartment, I'm sure you can
envision what was going on at that particular time," Collins said.
But Carroll, who moved into the apartment in September and started a new
job Tuesday, said Bear was not aggressive.
"That is ridiculous," she said. "There's no reason for them to shoot him at
all. When dogs try to fight him, he just plays with them."
Liddiard said she never heard Bear bark or growl.
"It was over and done with in seconds," she said. "He didn't even whimper."
Carroll said Bear had what appeared to be a small entry wound in his back
left shoulder and a large, bloody chest wound, thought to be the bullet's exit.
He also had a tooth knocked out.
Carroll said Bear's face is frozen in a scared expression.
Blood stained the cream-coloured carpet inside the apartment where Bear's
body lay after the shooting.
A large brown pillow sits on the floor where the dog would have been lying
when police busted in.
Carroll spent most of yesterday looking for a clinic to cremate the dog she
raised since he was a puppy.
"They screwed up large," she said of the police raid, adding police never
apologized for their mistake. "They never found anything and they destroyed
my apartment."
Collins said he has assigned a senior officer to investigate the incident,
saying Carroll is innocent and it appears police raided the wrong apartment.
"I have enough information on the basis that something went wrong here . .
. to order a full and thorough investigation so that we know what the
circumstances were," he said.
The investigation includes a review of the circumstances under which
officers went into the apartment, how officers ended up with Carroll's
apartment and the execution of the warrant, he said.
"Like any organization, mistakes can be made and errors can be made and,
unfortunately, that's the situation it would appear we're in at the present
time," Collins said.
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