POLICE looking for a man wearing an ankle bracelet at the wrong residence end up shooting and killing a family’s pet dog Sunday (dog pictured here with his family previously).
By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS
Tribune Staff Reporter
lmunings@tribunemedia.net
POLICE shot and killed a family’s beloved dog after visiting the wrong residence, then reportedly failed to apologise for the mishap, which has left the owners reeling and demanding accountability.
Tiana Ferguson, 21, said police showed up at her two-storey apartment com- plex in Kemp Road on Sunday looking for someone with an ankle bracelet.
When she opened the door to two men in camouflage uniforms, her dog, Milo, went outside.
“My dog went towards one of the police, and I tried to grab the dog back,” she said yesterday. “I was like inches away from the dog. I heard two shots. My dog was down, and I was crying.”
The man the police were looking for lived downstairs. Ms Ferguson said after the officers left, she went looking for her father and returned to meet police “roughing” him up after he became emotional about the dog’s death.
A viral video of the aftermath of the shooting captured the commotion. At one point, an officer threatened to arrest the father, Silvan Ferguson, for disorderly conduct because the man used obscene language.
Ms Ferguson said the officers showed no remorse.
“They are wrong,” her father added yesterday. “They know that they were wrong, and they still are not trying to minimise the situation to what’s going on, to try to bring some sort of calmness to it. Their first thing was to try to oppress me.
“They trying to overpower me, to say that, oh well they are police, they could get away with any shit, they could just arrest me and that one solved. But, like I tell them, just like how y’all kill my dog, y’all would have to kill me next.”
Mr Ferguson said the dog was like a child to him.
“It feels like they took a piece of my heart out,” he said. “I intend to go to every extent to get justice because it isn’t like the dog came out, the dog was in his house, the dog was home where he lived.”
“That is family. Milo was family. That dog grow from a pup with us. It isn’t just a dog, that’s family. When you get a pet and you grow to love that pet and stuff, that’s like a child.”
Ms Ferguson described the emotional toll of watching her dog die.
Milo, she said, loved eating the food the family ate, like mangoes.
“Every time I get to sit down it was just playing back in my mind,” she said. “Every time I close my eyes, I see his body right there with the blood. I just couldn’t get it out. I tried to sleep last night, but I went to sleep this morning around 4.30am because every time I closed my eyes, the picture of laying right there was in my mind.”
Mr Ferguson filed a complaint with the police’s Complaints and Corruption Branch yesterday. Deputy Commissioner of Police Leamond Deleveaux, who oversees that department, declined to comment.
Kim Aranha, the president of the Bahamas Humane Society, said the police are not trained to deal with residents who have dogs, a long-standing problem.
“The police need to be trained on what to do when they go to a private residence where there is a dog,” she said.
“I think fear is a big part of that and they are not going to like that.”
“All over the world now police forces are being professionally trained on how to handle animals when they go to a house or apartment where there are animals.
“It is time for our government to have our police force trained in that, and meanwhile, people who shot things without due thought probably should have some form of repercussion. It can’t just happen and you forget about it. It can’t be forgotten about.”
Comments
hrysippus 6 months, 1 week ago
There is something profoundly wrong with policemen who like to kill, whether it is a family's pet dog or another human being. As is usual nothing will happen, and it will happen very slowly.
truetruebahamian 6 months, 1 week ago
I hope that this family follows through and prosecutes this police officer. I would.
bahamianson 6 months, 1 week ago
Yeah, while driving pass the Point this morning , I noticed a guy walking three dogs . He was walking pass the stores before passing the Point Hotel. He had two dog breeds I did not recognize and one pitbull looking dog. The pitbull was not secured, just walking. Now that is nonsense. He should have been stopped by the "do nothing police", and prevented from walking a pitbull without securing the dog. All we need is for that dog to bite a tourist and total chaos occurs.
bahamianson 6 months, 1 week ago
Hold on, police or anyone showing up to a door, door opens , pitbull attacks, police shoots pitbull that is attacking them. What is the problem? They should have apologised, but no problem here. It is very sad that the family friend died, very sad.
rosiepi 6 months, 1 week ago
Ms Ferguson is lucky to be alive. And the officer who shot her dog in such close proximity to her should be charged criminally starting with endangering her life.
The RBPF’s cavalier irresponsible attitude to their burden of responsibility as police officers and licensed firearms carriers is equaled only by their contempt for their fellow Bahamians.
This incident proves once again the inadequacies of the RBPF as any representative “law enforcement”. They remain a systemically criminal and corrupt organization answerable to no one.
mandela 6 months, 1 week ago
The Skipping's police spokeswoman who always talking about conflict resolution needs to first go and talk to her gang of legal killers and gang members whose only way is escalating any and every situation, once police are involved in any kind of conflict or a situation where de-escalation is needed, forget it, it will guaranteed, only lead to some form of injury or death.
TalRussell 6 months, 1 week ago
We are hearing from more popoulaces' who are psychologically affected after some policemans' resorted to deadly force against their 'four-legged family members' when it wasn't called for. -- Yes?
JokeyJack 6 months, 1 week ago
What were they supposed to do? Give him a big wet kiss? Of course they shot him. He wasn't on a leash and you opened the door. Pitbulls have killed and maimed many children. They should ALL be killed.
TalRussell 6 months, 1 week ago
@Comrade JJ, Hadn't policemans' ‘arrived all armed --- The family's beloved pet member wouldn't been shot dead. -- Yes?
pileit 6 months, 1 week ago
This is stupid as FCK. You are indeed a joke, Jack.
hrysippus 6 months, 1 week ago
Umm, Smokey Jack, you have posted that pitbulls have killed many people, can you please supply a list, in The Bahamas, or please, just sit small at the back og the class?
John 6 months, 1 week ago
Well police are being held accountable when rogue officers indiscriminately use young, Black men for target practice, in some instances pumping over FIFTY rounds in one vehicle. And if you don’t think law and accountability is effective then explain why police involved shootings DECLINED from a high of SIXTEEN to a current count of TWO. Sorry for your loss still.
TalRussell 6 months, 1 week ago
Dog Leashes and Neck Loops are Strong, Adjustable and are "Non-life-threatening. -- Both the Colony's Police Act and Criminal Code says. -- A Wanted sought for arrest shall not be subjected to more force than is necessary to restrain them. -- Animal Control Officers who regularly encounter Pitbull's are not armed. -- Yes?
ForeverDreamer 6 months, 1 week ago
Dog Attack Averted
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