The mayor of a small Missouri town has resigned and residents are calling to shut down the police force after a cop shot a deaf, blind dog and left people outraged.
The owner of the 13-pound Shih Tzu mix is suing the city of Sturgeon for $1 million after horrifying body cam footage captured the moment officer Myron Woodson shot dead Teddy, 5, on May 19, according to a report from the Washington Post.
According to the report, Kevin Abrahamson, the former mayor resigned amid the controversy without a publicly stated reason.
The video from the body cam footage obtained by the Daily Mail opens with an innocent white, fluffy Teddy roaming around in a grassy field.
Woodson is holding a metal catch pole and saying “come on baby” to encourage Teddy to put his head through the lasso end of the catch pole.
Later in the video, Teddy is seen playing with a rope around a tree when Woodson walks up to the confused pooch and shoots twice.
Woodson then tells a neighbor: ‘I had to dispatch it.’
The neighbor tells Woodson she was concerned he was firing his gun because she had children nearby, but Woodson’s shadow can be seen on the body cam footage using his hand to wave off the mother’s concerns.
Hunter arrives shortly after and confronts Woodson over shooting his dog, according to a report from the Daily Mail.
Woodson said he didn’t know the helpless pup was blind.
“So you’re putting him out of his misery?” Hunter asked Woodson.
“What am I supposed to do?” Woodson replied, and pointed out Sturgeon doesn’t have animal control.
“I don’t enjoy shooting dogs,” the officer added.
Woodson was initially called to the area to help Teddy who was lost because he was blind.
The day after the shooting the city released a statement on Facebook that said Woodson believed Teddy was rabid and was afraid of being bitten.
The statement from the city also said that Woodson didn’t know Teddy was blind and thought the dog’s lack of ID tags played into Woodson’s determination that the dog was “sick” and “abandoned” and needed to be put down.
“‘This whole situation never should have happened. It was handled in the wrong way entirely,” Teddy’s other owner Abbey Harnish told the Washington Post.
Dozens of Sturgeon residents hijacked a regularly scheduled city meeting Tuesday to show their support for Teddy, according to the paper.
Some people in the normally police-friendly town called for the two-person police team to be shut down after the callous killing of the tiny disabled pup.
“I think until you get this entire problem solved with the police department, you shut it down,” one man told the newspaper.
Woodson is on paid leave while the city investigates.
The lawsuit Hunter filed against Woodson and the city alleges Hunter’s Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated.
Daniel Kolde, one of the attorneys who brought the suit, said he thinks Woodson’s action constitute felony animal abuse, and he wants the prosecutor to file charges.
Teddy’s other owner Abby Harnish is grieving and wants change.
“Ultimately, nothing is going to bring my dog back, but there’s something that needs to be done and change with both the city and the cop,”‘ Harnish said.
